Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

The cleanup took not that long, although they lingered so that Ashley could get her scavenger skill to make another gentrified crab. She knows how to go on the field which Bagel was envious of. Whatever she was doing, she was deploying a lot of assets at the same time.

He knew he had the bodega itself to take care of, so he didn't mind as much. And that they had killed what had to be over 100 lizards all together through three, possibly four waves meant they had all gotten a lot of points. It also meant that they had about twenty cards each that they could split up or trade.

"You're welcome to sell your cards to me, of course, at market rate," the cat said. "I understand you may not have a use for all of them, but twenty cards are two decks. We can get..."

"We got ten new decks right here?" Mctavish said. "I mean, they're all concrete lizards, but damn yeah, we have ten new decks. I mean, obviously, I only have two, but we could make ten more deck bearers right now."

The Scottish man was sifting through the rubble. Trying to make sure that every single card was pulled out. One ability of the gentrifier crab was that it could sift through the concrete and wood that the concrete lizards left behind. It turns out the concrete was just like the outside of their bodies.

"I'm not running to charity, but I will take them off your hands if you don't have anyone to give them to." Bagel adjusted the way his mat was facing so that it could make sure that the dungeon entrance was fully open. It was. And now he was thinking about what Kate would do next. Did he have another dungeon run in him? He probably did if they had more help. Several times, they nearly succumbed to being overrun. It was only because the totem turtle and the swarm of Ashley's creatures were there to deal with that. He thought of how this would be if it was a single person and then realized that it would be possible if the person had a sidearm like the police officer and the Scotsman did.

"I'm not even going to ask you how you got that sidearm, so let's just pretend you don't have it."

Partho said.

"Suits me. I won't have to pull up my diplomatic passport to do anything then." Mctavish stroked his beard. "All right. I'm not seeing anything else in here, guys. Is anyone seeing anything else?"

Kate and Ashley, from the opposite side of the room, both shook their heads. Was it macabre sorting through mob corpses, perhaps? But was it necessary? Of course. One didn't just get cards delivered to one's self. One had to go to the cards and extract them from the monsters and sometimes get a special treat; an item or other card they could deploy on their creatures.

Bagel itched to keep exploring the dungeon, but it looked like it was just a ramp down into a larger area where all the concrete lasers had spawned from. His ears had been listening for any sort of out of place sounds, but the junction was really quiet. He couldn't even hear the normal hum of machinery here. Save for the sound that passed through the entrance portal. He also wondered what was happening that stopped these mobs from leaving out the portal as it had seemed it's just like an open door. He could walk out. Why didn't the concrete lizard models walk out?

That was a question for somebody else to answer. Probably Kate. She seemed very interested in what was actually happening out there. He was interested in returning to a shop and perhaps taking a nice early evening or late afternoon nap, depending on how long they've been there. It hadn't been in so long. Come to think of it? How did humans keep track of time? Bagel just kept track of time by the times that he ate food and since he only ate twice a day, there was a first meal and second meal.

Now that they can have other delicious meals, including the one from a Middle Eastern place across the street, perhaps there might be a third meal in his future? He could only hope.

But then again, he didn't need hope. He literally had a store full of food that he could eat whenever he wanted to. It just so happened that none of them were succulent baba ganoush from across the street.

The handsomest boys get the handsomest treats. Or so he imagined, his father would say. The best treats go to the handsomest boys.

Bagel felt a pang of sadness when he thought about his own father and mother. He barely remembered them. Raul was his family now and the two girls that kept showing up and pulling him on wacky adventures had felt more like aggressively unhelpful friends than family. But they were growing on him. He jumped down from his mount onto a soft concrete carapace and slunk towards Ashley. She saw him and she petted him on the head as was custom.

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Hey, being a gracious and good boy accepted the pats with magnanimity as to fit his station. As be fit.

"Hey Bagel, that was a good battle. Thanks for saving my ass back there." Ashley got up.

Bagel realized he was being held close at that exact moment. He didn't really ask to be held, but he just knew that she needed it. Probably more than needed it at that exact moment. He wasn't going to begrudge her what she needed as she stared at Kate. There was something between them. The air was so thick that he could cut it with a claw.

Whatever it was, he was here for it. They were going to be petty. He wanted to be there to witness it. After all, he was going to tell Samantha to Raul and he might as well have something you can tell the man. He didn't even know if Raul would still be there. When he got back. He went back to him, not knowing how he could tell Tommy, and that was when the system filled in that he needed to look at a clock or a watch. There were none around. Ashley and Kate. Both didn't have a watch on them though. The police officer crossed the way and McTavish both did. He would file that away for later.

"I think we're done here," Kate said, getting up and wiping her hands off. The dust clouded on the floor, as the Mist from it swirled into the air.

I guess that's fine too, very much said. The girls made their way around the remaining pile of twisted concrete lizards with rebar skeletons. More than once, they had to step around a piece of brown or red pipe that had just not curved down or away from the action.

"I think your swarm saved the day," Kate said, walking around the two human-sized crabs.

Ashley was riding on one, and Bagel was riding on the other one behind her.

Compared to riding on a human, this felt positively regal by comparison. It was low to the ground, like he usually was, but it also had the sense of an evolution that he couldn't quite match with just that base. Human mob. Mob. He did like to cook. He appreciated it and he had used it many times to have significant effects, but this?

He could get used to this.

He was wondering then how he might persuade her to lend him one of her swarm beasts for a long-term contract. It, of course, was just amazing if they could do the thing where she just let him keep it.

Because it's handsome as he was, the concrete crab made of gentrified materials? It was adorable. It was a patchwork of wood cockpit and rebar, but the end effect was that it blended in when it needed to blend in and when it didn't; it made him think about the concrete jungle outside. He heard tales, a place where there were trees and foliage and where cats could roam around and find birds. Just sunning themselves. But that place wasn't here. Maybe he'd go through a dungeon, and they'd end up lost in a forest. In the end, he didn't actually know. But when he wanted to ride this crab all the way out to 45th Street.

It wasn't dark yet. It wasn't cold either. McTavish and Partho both took a minute to confer with each other before they both departed. They held onto all twenty cards assigned to them.

Kate and Ashley were going to sell him their concrete lizard cards for the store. He would, of course, give them a market rate for it. This meant that after the pizza rat, the next most common thing he had was forty copies of the concrete lizard card.

It had fifty hit points and a ten damage attack, though it had a stealth ability when surrounded by concrete. It was a ground type of all things. One type that would be good against a pizza rat. Fortunately enough for him, he had tried to attack it with his mob, which had proved super effective in their battle.

The human mob of beating the concrete or ground mob felt like a bit of a revelation and maybe he was going to need to pay more attention to card typing.

---

"Is this going to be a thing now?" Ashley said.

She got out her cell phone and unlocked it and went to the contacts page. She hadn't wanted this to happen, but it was getting to become glaringly apparent that Kate was going to drag her to something because of how useful she was and she was going to need Kate because how useful Kate was. And although she was still mad at her, she didn't have anybody in the city. She's been working too hard.

Ashley sighed and grabbed the phone and then tapped a number in. She then called somebody on it. Ashley assumed was her number but then Kate's phone rang from somewhere

She handed Ashley back her phone. "Look, you're too useful for me to not use in a dungeon. All right, so I think I'm going to run another dungeon in a little. But your girl has got concrete dust all over her and it sounds like the police department wants to come talk to me about these things. Joe, after that, I think I guess I'll give you a ring?"

Ashley shrugged. The duvet might cover them both, but she didn't know where Kate lived.

"You're welcome to use my shower if you are okay with that. I live right upstairs. She could barely stammer at the words despite totally intending them in every sense."

So what did it matter if she couldn't get the gig that she wanted? There was no more gig. At least she wasn't sure about that.

She was still going to go to work because that's what you did when your landlord demanded to be paid rent during a goddamn system apocalypse.