Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"Fortunately for you, this is the last one I have so I'm going to sell it to you for the low low price of seven credits because you're a valued customer. We appreciate your continued patronage." Khaleesi stopped to take a deep breath, clearly having rehearsed this line several times. "Now if you're just going to sign here on the dotted line then I will grant you your cards immediately so that you can fully enjoy them in your exploits as a dungeon runner."

Bagel was never one to stray away from an interesting smell. He had wandered in after his worker. The cook was at carrying capacity. Bagel was unable to carry a single styrofoam box of any weight, it just wasn't feasible.

The guild was bustling. The humans just had decided that this was the new community center. Turtle Bay residents kept popping in to see if they could get cards.

A few attempted to scam cards off of each other

Even less attempted to outright sell their bodies for cards. That didn't make my sense to him, but if the administration of the guild was willing to accept it he would not look twice.

"Twelve box lunches here! Who ordered one?" Bagel said.

His cook balanced out the twelve or styrofoam boxes, ready for to the waiting hungry adventures.

They probably didn't see themselves in adventurers, but the fact that they were ordering from the turtle Bay adventurous guilds next to his shop meant that he had a steady stream of customers that would either come in for a drink or just order something and then ask it if they delivered next door. There was a lot of time that a party needed to talk out their tactics for what they went in. So several six-person parties were discussing how to take over dungeon runs that they had pulled down from the board.

As he stepped in, a scout returned from a mission. The man, one of those delivery boys that had been running everywhere before the system had come held out a tablet.

"Another low-level dungeon."

There was a round of applause from the gathered crowd as Bagel arrived.

"Do we have any more of these? Scouting missions within five blocks?"

The man with the neck beard smiled. "We're expecting more spawns within the next 6 hours so take some rest to come back then. It'll almost be night time. Thank you."

Gave each other fist bump as Bagel ascended to the counter to observe the guild.

"Oh hello good. I hope that the shop is doing well today."

"I've had to use my restock card twice. Business is going well or about as well as it could be given the current situation."

The card itself let him restock one section of his store and usually used it for the drinks or the deli food. The fact that people kept coming in and ordering food and his suppliers had not been was a bigger problem than he had initially thought. Because he was the only person with the root restock card and a store, all the humans were stopping more often at his place versus places that would have been his competitor. That is all the places except for the Amish market which was still getting lots of deliveries thanks to a 10-person security detail.

The company that he had a contract with had two men, a box truck and one only one of those people had a deck. It was bear themed so at least he had some attack power behind it but for the most part, He used his restock magic liberally. With only 12 cards in his deck, the chances were that he would draw restock within three hands. And he could refresh his hand every 30 seconds if he didn't get the card he wanted. So he was only a few minutes away from restocking any part of the store at most parts during the day.

The combination of his restockability and his store with the ability for him specifically to buy land meant that he could buy a buildings in in the block and he was just a few credits away from buying up the large multi-story apartment building that had been on his list since the day that he started understanding human speech.

The neck bearded man looks like he wanted to pet Bagel.

The cat solidified his position on the issue by sitting next to him and presenting himself to be petted.

"It isn't weird that I'm effectively petting my boss, right? That's that's that's not weird right?"

In response, Bagel purred.

"I guess we all have needs," the scout said before checking the map on the wall. In his arm he is holding a scooter of some design that Bagel had seen multiple times in use by many delivery people.

They must have been some mechanism that powered him all the way through his journey. The only thing he had in him above his waist was a courier satchel and a tank top as well as a large hat. It had been a brutal summer made worse by all of the mobs all the sudden showing up through in the party but humanity had started to fight back.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

At some point in time the man behind the counter stopped petting Bagel. That was when Ashley and Kate finally finished their extended fashion show.

They stopped at the counter on their way out. It'd have been placed there to make people think about talking to whichever Guild official was there. At the time. It didn't work as much as they thought it would, but the purpose of the guild wasn't to talk to every single person who walked in and it was to get those dungeons done as soon as possible for the overflowed.

"Oh here's their landlord now," Kate said bending over. "You are such a handsome boy. Did you know that?"

"Is there a way that you can make this any weirder," Ashley said, nodding to the staffer with the neck beard. " Or is this just what's going to happen now."

"You guys massage each other all the time," Bagel said. "How is this... any different?"

Kate shrugged. Ashley's face turned a bright shade of pink. Bagel, of course didn't understand why she all of a sudden looked like that and just chalked it up to her wanting to pet him. Perhaps it was just jealousy on her part. There couldn't be any other reason. Everyone wanted to pet the blocks bestest boy.

"Bagel we're just going to go get dinner. Did you want to try some human food? We're going to go to the Chinese food place and then the two of us are going to watch some older television if that even works anymore."

Bagel smiled. It was good to be remembered.

"That sounds like a good time. If you'll have me, I'd love to spend some time with you guys."

All the sudden the petting stopped and Bagel was okay with it. Then we're going to get some food. He was going to probably enjoy some tasty treats and then the humans would tell him things. There was only so much that he could get from his understanding of the world and he wanted to learn every single thing he could. But it was the humans, the people that were with him. They were trying to bring him up to speed on human culture and even as it evolved past what it had been before with all the cards being passed out.

---

The next morning, more of his regulars showed up, looking for a deal.

"Look I don't understand what the problem is. I've got ten of these. I'll pass some dragon cards for you. I just want some more of those heal cards," the man said.

"There's a strict limit in place on purpose because they're so useful."

"I'll give you ten thousand dollars for one," the woman said. "They are so valuable."

There was something dark on her eyes. She pushed the tears away.

Holly and Lisa, the regulars behind her blinked. "Miss are you alright?" Lisa said.

"I just want my son to be safe. Why can't we all be safe?"

"Well that's a complicated question. But we're all doing our best here, right?" Lisa said, flipping her short blonde hair.

"Except for you who's always doing her worst. Maybe step up your game," Holly said.

"Hey, I'm trying here," Lisa said. "At least I'm trying."

The two women squared off. The regulars had a penchant to get into silly little arguments. Bagel was going to let that one play itself out. It usually played itself out with no problems.

"Why are you both so cavalier about this?" The woman yelled.

Holly and Lisa both stopped bickering to stare at her.

"Ma'am," Lisa said. "We apologize for any outburst. We're all trying to deal with this in our own way."

Holly nodded. "Heck, I never expected to be a deck bearer, and had you told me that I would be one? I would have send your ass to the psych ward."

"Oh you're so kind. Can't you see that she's having issues?"

Bagel was content to let them do whatever. The two women had been regulars long before he understood the term.

Janet beeped twice.

"Please all of you. We can put you on the list. There is a demand for healing cards and they are a rare drop. It's possible that we would have one for you soon, but it's up to the boss if we even sell it."

That meant that Janet was trying to put the ball in the Bagels court but he definitely was not having any of that. That was definitely her job. He could take care of the other parts of the business like taking the important naps on preparing for other naps.

Naps were essential when you were fluffy and cute. They were also essential when you were trying to run a small business that was now encompassing for New York City buildings.

A cat had to eat after all. These humans were so busy trying to get into his way when I think he could just work together. They had worked so hard together to make all these buildings before. It was so strange that they couldn't do just a few things. Bagel watched as the regulars offered her a drink and she took it and the three of them all disappeared with some brown or yellow liquid out the front door. He didn't have a heel card to give out. And if he were to say so, they would have had to figure out that an NYPD had priority for healing hearts. He would have had to be have been a drug deal.

Of all the human phrases he'd learned so far, his favorite to date had been learning what the phrase drug deal actually meant.

---

"In the afternoon of the ninth day post system integration, much of humanity has begun to fight back."

The screen flickered to death toll on the millions.

"Even the president is now speaking about local action and taking local action head of this tide of What can only be considered endless assaults against Americans and humans everywhere. The government urges anybody with the ability to purchase land to let themselves be known and they will receive protection as their services are direly needed."

The TV show panned to show shots of people waiting in line for food next to stores that had card made food and switched over to a view of an overturned tractor trailer.

"With global supply lines being absolutely destroyed, it's much worse than the tariffs ever got in 2025."

The screen switched to the president briefly there as she gave an impassioned speech.

"My fellow Americans, we are urging people to band together in small communities and talk amongst yourselves. If you have cards that you're not slotting into a deck to please find somebody that doesn't have a deck and give them a card. Please be a responsible adult when you can. And buy as much land up as you can from the system."

The TV screen switch back to the two announcers who were deep and contemplative thought.

"Words from president for life Beyoncé, praise be."

"Praise be."