Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"We had an agreement."

The pigeons had come to roost.

Instead of him coming to them, they'd flown all the way to meet on top of his building. The recently completed addition allowed people to launch drones directly from the rooftop of the adventurer's guild and the top of his Bodega, effectively creating a sixth floor to the two buildings that was only accessible from a third building.

It was a kind of urban planning nightmare that any sane building department would have vetoed three months prior. It was only through the sheer volume of having shell accounts to redirect the department that bagel had gotten it done. The city had other priorities.

The building itself was a sleek white. It provided a nice backdrop from which Bagel could address the pigeons and if they wanted to, they could fly off. He was making his case as best as possible.

"Our agreement does not extend to the outer boroughs," Blue said.

The five pigeons that had shown up were something like a board of directors, not unlike the board that Bagel sat on for jelly side layer. The current board head, Copernicus had grown a bit of a goatee. Bagel was not in any way jealous of the growth.

Copernicus cleared his throat. "Regardless of how we see it or you see it, the humans are going to look at this as an act of aggression. We've been supporting their ongoing efforts to reclaim Staten Island so that it doesn't overrun Brooklyn or Bayonne."

Blue preened. "If we can't come to new agreement then what are you going to do? Have humans taken a move against us?"

"Nothing so crass," Bagel said. "I'm going to remind you now that two months ago none of us were awakened and we could not debate the merits of this decision. I don't control humans. They're beyond our control, but not our influence."

"Point taken. It appears that we are at an impasse that our people don't want. Humans are allowed to settle there once we've cleared it up, but otherwise? We have no issue coexisting with them. We want the skies and someplace comfortable to land. We are not intending to press upon this."

To Bagel's delight, the pigeons appeared sincere. They stuck around for far too long and they preferred Meatballs company.

That itself was a red flag to him.

Eventually they were going to have to figure out a long-term plan, but he was okay with this division. Even if the Chelsea pigeons administered the land, it was not his problem.

Meatball buying up the land? Eventually that would end.

She wouldn't be able to establish another lot anywhere. The warehouse card wouldn't allow it.

It was strange that he thought that a public works proposal to expand the island was now more possible than ever. After all there was nothing that would stop him from doing it. The only problem was that City Hall and the city government were between him and there.

"There's something else I wanted to talk to you about," Bagel said. " South of Manhattan between Manhattan and governors Ireland, there is a plan to turn that area into an extension of Manhattan. This has been in the worst for a while but no one has had the appetite to actually do it."

Blue eyed him carefully. "If we do that then we could continue buying land for the South South. I wonder how the system treats land that didn't exist when it came online."

It would be an experience. Bagel will need to find material to fill in which would be easy if they demolish a few buildings and reused it to shore up the space between the two islands. Then all they need to do is figure out how to make that more manageable. It was right by where the ferries were originally docked, so the adventurers guild would know.

"We can't rely on the promise of something that could potentially happen. We have to assume that the city is not taking a special interest in this," Copernicus said. "That said, we have done incredible things, including claiming a large portion of Staten Island. With your help? We could have outposts that accepted awakened animals all across the country."

It was a simple idea. A world where the humans respected their animal companions. Old worlds where cats and pigeons had rights. They could try to build that world using the power structures that existed. Bagel was pretty sure that the humans were not going to just let that happen. What was the phrase? They would not just roll over. It wasn't like the cats were that threatening. There weren't even that many of them on a weekend to cats tended to die really fast. If their owners died in the Apocalypse. They were targets.

Big ladder herd accounts of people stumbling upon pets that have been left in the apartments because their owners had never made it back. It was heartbreaking but it happened. As soon as he had his druthers he'd had Gladys check. I kind of thing. There was nothing he had prepared to look for.

But if he had to? He would send someone to do it for him.

He had people for a reason.

---

"What do you mean? They don't know what's going on?" Khaleesi said, attempting to place hats on Bagel and Meatball.

"The interface. The pigeons would not have had the interface. The squirrels don't. Or they didn't."

"I'm the one that's in charge of the interface for the Chelsea pigeons lower West Side holdings. So if they can see something else from Staten Island then that's on them. Anyone? Who's got the interface that shows what things cost can also see what else they've been bought and sold in the area. They couldn't see that until they got to Staten Island and now they've essentially cut me off. They've gone all the way up to Hudson Street."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Intellectually, Bagel understood that that was a far distance away. He internalized that. But it still felt like they were trying to get close to his turf.

It was his turf.

His shareholders would have something to say about this. They would want to know. But how would he get the message out. And even then what would they ask him to do?

"Are you thinking about the shareholders again?" Khaleesi said.

"It's a forcing function. If we have them call for a vote and then the city can't go against them. If we give them the information?"

Khaleesi nodded, juking her drone to the left. Bagel had to turn away.

Enough times he'd thrown up or been close to throwing up because of what they were doing. It was a beautiful thing watching a woman who seemed now to be in her element.

"Ace! Watch this!" Khaleesi placed a hat delicately on Meatball's head. It was a design that the humans called a fisherman's hat. It looked like an inverted bowl.

"Oh that's adorable. Do you want a fishy?" Ace said from across the way before handing over her controls to a drone.

The woman had been instrumental in getting the actual fly instruction up and running. It was simple to fly a drone and it was in the air for the most part. It was those little edge cases that caused them to have to use her to iron out the kinks.

"Can I have one?" Meatball said.

Bagel nodded. He highly doubted that the woman had any fish at all. More than likely what she had was going to be something like a human treat called a goldfish. They came in crunchy bags and were cheesy tasting. The only good part about them was that they looked like fish. And even then it was like the humans ideal image of fish, not actual fish. What he wouldn't give for waters that were slightly better and more readily fishable.

They East River already looked a lot better because humanity wasn't really polluting the way that they had been. Planes couldn't fly unless the entire airport was bought up by somebody which meant that there was a concerted effort behind that.

"I'm sorry I don't actually have any fish. But the rivers are looking better right? It's like covid when things had to shut down. Things have been shut down for a while now and...hold on." Ace moved back to her screen.

As a woman of assume control, they couldn't help but find a New respect for the woman. She had noticed something and he hadn't even thought to look.

"Is that a flight of pigeons flying in an attack pattern?"

It was easy to see that the five pigeons were flying together. What? What was strange to Bagel was that they were flying over to Queens. They were in fact, flying above the East River approaching the very place where he'd had issues with the Golden eagle mobs. For the most part, they had resolved dispute and the people and that tiny neighborhood had been able to get a handle on their monster issue.

But why would the pigeons be going that direction?

"What use would a flying creature have for flying cards?" Bagel said.

"Pardon?" Khaleesi said.

"We'll look at where they're going. They're heading to Queens right by Roosevelt Island. You remember the Golden eagle right?"

"Kinda? Oh that's the mob that spawns there, right? Oh that makes perfect sense!"

Bagel was nonplussed. "Care to elaborate?"

"Bagel it's difficult to engage people in the air. If all their cards are the golden eagles then they can just take pot shots. Air superiority is the name of the game."

It hadn't even dawned on Bagel that the pigeons were going to try to get air superiority that way. La Noche was not going to like this. He was pretty sure that their relationship was going to be not so kind with the pigeons. Especially after this recent change

He couldn't imagine what they were going to do, but he could more than likely guess that they would not like it and that would eventually turn to something else. Most likely it would turn into a actual battle between the races.

There was such enmity between the three of them that if their deals didn't work out this was going to be a tough time.

"You don't think they're going to try to take out our drones, do you?" Khaleesi said. "That's the first thing I would do."

"I think we're going to need to requisition more drones. Mr. Bagel, do you think that we can have more drones? I would appreciate it."

It's seeing grown women give him kitten eyes before. He was no stranger to any amount of deception that they were going to try to pull on him. In fact, he taught meatball many of the ways that he had figured out how to get the human to do things.

A big part of that was looking unassuming and not trying too hard to be a obvious cat. If he pretended to be a human, adopt them aneurysms and all those things, then they might think that he was one of them.

He most certainly was not a human.

But he could learn their ways.

"Air superiority you say? Tell me more about it."

Ace smiled. "I think that we can handle that."