Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

Bagel had his game face on. It was the face that he used when people would ask if he was a good boy or girl. Of course, he was a good boy. It was part of his nature. Why would anyone doubt that?

Janet informed him of a new worldwide system message, which miffed him. Apparently, whoever had caused all this chaos had decided to increase the amount of problems in his life.

Bagel didn't like more problems. But to hear them tell it, this was an opportunity.

*Citizens of Earth! Congratulations on surviving the first 3 days of integration. Because of your incredible survival rate, we will move up some of the goal posts! That's right, you get to experience things right now that you would not have otherwise experienced. So stay tuned for this important message. Our only announcement today is that mobs will become more frequent from here on out, so deck builders! Get out there and make your planet proud.*

This was not an opportunity. This was dog shit.

"What does that even mean?" Bagel said, looking up at Janet. "Are they just increasing the amount of drops or dungeons or what is going on here?"

Janet gave a worried beep before circling around. She floated nearby the front door as if she could tell right now what was happening out there. There still were a group of people camped out there, waiting for the next spawn.

As they watched, two mobs spawned.

That was about perfect. Twice the threat. His distaste crystalized.

Bagel could only take so much abuse at once.

This was going to put the humans into overdrive.

Once Kate shared the data, Janet did him the favor of pulling up a map and displaying it in the bodega's interior. The large map showed details down to the street level. Janet combined the dungeon locations and her AI's estimations, then posted this information online. He'd heard there were a series of apps that spread his people's gospel, which was of course cat pictures.

There was one big problem.

They didn't have any information on the actual contents of said dungeons.

One of the more interesting cards that had come out of their dungeon dive was a card that allowed the user to sense nearby dungeons up to a mile away. Such a thing in a dense urban area was godsend, although Bagel didn't know how much fidelity they would get. When someone was tracking the smell, one had to follow a certain pattern to get closer.

Unless the smell was one of the louder ones.

It felt like he needed to put a sign outside of the shop saying that dungeon locations were right there as people rushed his store both to buy cards and sell them from the dungeon runs. Within an hour, he had enough to buy the adjacent building, though he didn't know which one he wanted to get first.. It was going to cost him 1,000 credits to buy the apartment building and 500 credits to buy the single story Chinese food restaurant.

The restaurant was further down on forty-fifth street to the west, while the apartment building was south on second avenue. So either way, he would move his domain, enlarging it to encompass more.

Unfortunately, the way he'd priced his card , most were inexpensive. He might have been able to sell one for the cost of an entire building as far as the system was concerned.

There had to be a different way that the actual city was tracking this unless that all fell apart.

"Janet, let me buy the restaurant lot."

"At once, boss," she said, beeping. "Okay. Now the... parking lot is wow only six hundred?"

Janet and Bagel were confident. Perhaps it was just that they were going to buy an additional piece of Manhattan real estate for what sounded like a very cheap price. Or perhaps it was the fact that Bagel just took his time to decide.

They didn't have another 600 credits if they were going to buy the apartment building as well. So it was a choice.

"If we buy the parking deck, then it'll prevent dungeons from spawning there and will prevent mobs from spawning there?" He said.

Janet beeped. "That's what the rules say."

"All I know is how to sell things and be handsome."

"And that's all you need to do. That's perfectly acceptable," Janice said. "However, let me remind you that we are now in a new era. Apparently, those first three days were just a little tutorial for all the little humans here."

"I know they're more animals that have turned into deck bearers and learned how to speak and all that. But it's still mostly human?" Bagel's tail flicked. "I already know the answer."

He knew in his heart it had to be true, and even if there were some others like him, it would be the odd rare cat, and not a normal thing for him to stumble upon because of course, he couldn't have lived next to a lot of cool cats with decks. However...

"Janet, is there a way that I can give a deck to another animal and then they would...?"

"Now that is a question."

A city of eight million people had stories. A few involved a cat, he was certain.

Two police officers came into the shop, both looking ragged. Their blue uniforms showed signs of consistent wear.

"Hey! We heard that there is a map of all the dungeons here?" a woman asked, coming straight over to Bagel. She didn't pet him. In fact she lost a lot of credibility by not immediately getting with the head pats.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"If that's what you want, then yes. We're also holding this dungeon detection card for someone," Janet said, swirling above them. "Are you the one that the precinct has sent for it?"

They took in the whole bodega. Things were all in order. The rows were clean, neat, and orderly. More importantly, thanks to a use of his restock skill, everything was fully there.

"How... how have you not run out of... Jeez, Karen?" the male police officer said. "Their milk expires in a month? What...?"

The female police officer walked over to the cooler. "Huh. This is good to know. The place down the street is struggling with almost no stock left. How are you keeping up?"

Bagel stood up. "Magic."

"Of course," the man said. "What a world."

"Magic is real now, Bob."

"Ah yeah, that's true."

The two officers shared a glance. The tension of the moment was not lost on Bagel. Humans were going to human, just like cats would cat. He simply had to navigate around it.

And not think about that he would never find a nice cat to mate with.

So what if he had a magical power to restock his shelves with all the things he needed to sell in order to keep it running? It was the least he could do to support his ongoing quest to accrue all the capital.

He only now realized that he was thinking about taking up capitalism.

Did he want to get into the rat race? Trying to make it work and have a business in the city? Did he want to make it big? Did he want to make it there so he could take it anywhere?

No, he did not want to make it there. And no, he didn't want to make it anywhere.

---

Ashley and company were getting ready to talk to Bagel. Her post dungeon shower and nap had been fruitful. She felt clean and, more importantly, she smelled clean. The nap itself was amazing, and that she was turning a large volume of scavenged parts into an AI that floated around her as an assistant was just icing on the cake.

It sounded like Janet. It looked like Janet. Ashley was going to withhold her decision on whether to call it Janet, though. There were so many variables that went into a name, especially when one was going to have a companion robot follow one around.

She liked her new apartment because of its accessibility and convenient midtown location, and because the cost was reasonable. 2nd avenue wasn't that bad. But seeing how the chaos of the day and how everyone had decided to either hold themselves up in their apartments or come out and take turns slaying pizza rats, it was getting to be weird.

She checked her phone and mindlessly scrolled through social media. Everyone was expecting that mobs would start spawning inside of buildings in time, and there was a big push for people that could buy buildings to buy them, as that would keep people inside safe. If the system recognizes that you owned the building, then it was much easier to be safe.

Ashley wondered what conditions were like in less crowded, rural areas. There were over a thousand people living in each square mile in the city. That meant the boroughs were thoroughly overstuffed with humans.

She read an interesting post explaining how mob frequency correlates with human population density.

When she got the message about the increase in mobs, she frowned.

So there she was, holding her phone and realizing that she was doing the same thing that she had been doing before all of this.

If the apocalypse happened and it didn't cause you to reassess your immediate surroundings and you went right back to scrolling, was it really an apocalypse?

She hovered over Kate's number. Was Kate the type of girl who appreciated calls or texts? She wasn't entirely certain.

By how she looked, it could have gone either way. But she had programmed her number into Ashley's phone and their phones did work, so she called Kate. Her hammock chair was a good place to be at.

She rocked in a chair as the phone rang twice.

Kate's voice came over the line, clear and crisp. "So the prodigal daughter calls her elder."

"Hey, Kate," Ashleys said. "I wanted to—"

"Holy fuck, do I sound clear as heck right now?"

"Do you think the aliens decided to make our cell phone networks better?"

Outside, two men were embracing after summoning two pizza rats.

"It's not outside of the realm of possibility. I did just create a drone out of scavenged parts, after all."

"You made a drone?" Kate had a flat affect that came across clearly. She was not pleased.

"Yeah. It's totally worth it. Look, I understand things are happening here really fast and weird. But how about we think about getting dinner together? I'm over my nap now and clean, and it looks like there's a lot going on."

The sigh over the line lasted for a few seconds, though it felt like minutes. Was Kate being too bold? She couldn't tell. Kate liked to move fast and break things which were understandable.

It was a tough life being a single woman in the city. The best thing they could do well for each other and love each other so well or in this case just support each other through this weird transition

"All right, I'm hungry. What do you want to eat?"

"There's a great Thai place next to where I live which I think that you'll like. We could head there. It's across the street from me, so it's easy, and I know the food is good and the other thing is that it's definitely open because I can see it."

"Any type of place that has kept its door open 3 days into the apocalypse is worth trying out. That boba shop was not really worth the effort, but especially if they're going to take credits instead of coins, then I can dig it."

Ashley smiled so hard her cheeks hurt. There was no one there to see it. She had a girl playing right into her hand, although she didn't even want them to do it together. Maybe all she really needed at that moment was a friend, and maybe it was the same thing for Kate. But what every girl really needed deep down on the inside was some spicy hot Thai food. The satisfaction of getting something that would make a regular man melt and then ingesting it as if it was nothing called out to her. And potentially either Kate liked spicy food or she was about to get the subtlest revenge ever.

Twenty minutes later and the two girls were sitting happily at the tiny bench seating on the inside of the Thai place. There were two seats, and it was very clear that the shop did not expect anyone to stay for a minute longer than they had to. Everything there was about efficiency.

But for every drop of efficiency they poured, another drop poured into the food, making it taste amazing.

"You know, when I got that system message, I thought I would never experience this again, but I'm so glad we came here," Kate said. "You know how it is in the novels."

Tears streaked down Ashley's face. Normally she'd gone for the three out of five chilies, maybe the four but today? After life had just beaten her in, taking away so much and keeping nothing in reserve for her. She felt like it was okay for her to go all out. After all, she had a functional toilet at home and it was right there. But oh God the regrets.

"Yeah, the food is amazing, but damn, am I awake."

Kate locked eyes with her. "Girl, you look like you just been broken up with by a jalapeno pepper. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ashley choked out. "Thrilled about this. It's not every day that you get to just absolutely destroy yourself with delicious food."

"I'll drink to that," Kate said, holding up her custom beverage. "Now what the heck is going on across the street and with that Bodega? Why, all of a sudden, does it look cleaner?"

It had to be a trick of the light. It didn't really matter because they were going to go over there and check on their new favorite cat, but something was going on. A steady stream of police officers and other officials had been walking around it and making their way inside.