Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"So this going back to school thing? After all these things happening? This is a normal thing for humans to do?"

"Of course it's normal for humans to do. They're making us work all day and all night because someone thought it was important. Otherwise, we wouldn't ever have to do any work. Honestly, it's just the worst."

School sounded pretty terrible to Bagel because of the inability to not do it. The word compulsory did not belong to his vocabulary. He would opt out of anything he wanted to opt out of.

Khaleesi had impressed upon him that it was actually a thing that needed to happen. Otherwise society would break down.

Maybe it needed to.

He had argued that point. She had argued that it didn't really matter what she thought because she wasn't minor and her parents were in charge.

"I'm just saying that you guys seem to be doing fine without school. You seem to be very smart," he said. "Whatever this thing is with you mining stuff, it's enough."

"I am smart because I study and because I take my time to go through the material. I was planning on actually having some sort of job when I get out of this. If there was even jobs to be had in a couple years. It looks like that's going to be taken away from me too just like all those recessions and problems that the world keeps giving us."

Bagel doubted that there would even be jobs on the other side of this.

"Compulsory schooling though." Bagel stretched out."OPT OUT."

Khaleesi and her family had a spot for him in their apartment. It was directly above the store. The previous tenants hadn't made it back and were presumed dead.

Bagel had never felt so welcomed when he was inside.

"And now you want to teach me things? I thought that the teacher for me was going to be the system."

"Mom, how is Bagel learning things from the system and I'm not?"

"Eat your dinner honey," Liza said from the other room.

"Thank you so much for the food," Bagel said over the teenagers glare. "What? It's delicious."

Liza smiled from the doorway. "Please be kind to Mr. Bagel. I know he's a cat but he's doing a lot for us."

Bagel ever looked that said exactly what her mother was saying. He would never stop her from calling him mister bagel.

Moms tended to be on the cuter side. Long ago, cats had established their dominance and leveled the playing field so that only babies could stand a chance against them. This wasn't to say that mothers couldn't be cute, but that their gradation was less of a issue for him to get past.

For instance, nobody took mothers onto their laps and started petting them at least not as far as he knew.

"He's been through a lot recently."

"You are referring to yourself in third person again. Maybe don't do that."

Bagel huffed. "But the other cats, I'll refer to themselves in third person all the time. Apparently, it's a thing that humans expect cats to do."

"Just because somebody expects you to be a cat and to be referred to like a cat doesn't mean that you should refer to yourself that way. In the end, you are your own person... Cat."

"You were telling me about peer pressure before. I heard you. But it's not like I have a wealth of previous knowledge to draw upon or that this is really something that I would ever, ever thought about. Humans you think about thinking so much."

"What do cats think about?"

"Delicious foods? Exploring? Delicious foods again. Did I mention I am hungry?"

"You have once or twice."

Hiding her face with her hands could not mute her gleeful look. Even Bagel smiled for the first time that day.

"All right kids, come on in," Liza said.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The woman prepared everything deliciously, and she set aside a small, clearly partitioned portion just for Bagel. The thinly sliced chicken required little chewing, so he savored the meal.

He had eaten chicken before of course. They had it at the grill and the owners would often give him a little scrap of food of just about everything they were having, cut down to a manageable size. But this was something new. Not only did it taste good but it wasn't a little secret that he was sharing with somebody. They wanted him here and not just because he had catch mice.

Ever since Raul returned into his life, the man had felt like a family. And true, Raul and his father are both working downstairs while they ate and this would have been better with both of them but times were strange.

They had to keep the adventurers' guild going, and they definitely had to keep the store open. Raul helped his father, and his mother, Bagel, was surprised to realize he considered her his mother; their mother had cooked dinner earlier, setting aside two plates for the men.

They heard keys opening the door. Khaleesi and her mother smiled.

"Dad! Raul! How was work!" She said, running to hug them both.

She held on for a long minute and then her mother came in and did the same thing. "Your food is going to get cold, so why don't you sit down and eat with us."

The food was clearly steaming off heat. It was nowhere near cold. Bagel didn't understand this interaction at all. But humans were very odd.

"Thank you, thank you," Raul said, sitting down.

"Ah, the landlord is here. So good of you to join us," his father said. "You know, several cats came in to register for the guild today."

"Only one came to the bodega after that."

That was distressing. The cat had showed up. It hadn't stuck around long enough for him to really get in the information out of it and it didn't appear to be one cat from midtown. They always sent an agent with a special attachment. It might have been that somebody had finally gone through and done the thing that he bearers, was going to actually happen.

"Do you know if they got their cards on the day of the system's arrival or if they got them through some other way?"

"There isn't a part of the forum for that. We should have asked that question," Raul said. If we can make more deck bearers we need to."

Her father raised a fork. "No one is going to turn another peregrine falcon into a deck bearer. You'd have to catch it first and they don't want to be caught."

"Well, that's-" Raul said. "I guess any animal that wants to do that would, but..."

They all have to hang there in the air for a little bit. This food really was good, distracting him from everything else that was going on.

Khalessi brightened. "Do you think that if he… if he went to the neighbor's house and asked him if we could make their cat a deck bearer that they would little happy about that? Because that would be a good way to help bolster our numbers."

I had talked about this before. Theoretically, it could work, but no one had actually seen it in action. If someone had done it, either intentionally or unintentionally, then the guy will be a deck bearer and they would get in the system and then suddenly they would have a sentience that really all cats should have. But no cats. I just wanted to do the bodega. Not when there were so many new predators and threats out there.

A pizza rat could kill and eat a normal cat. Heck, it could bring down a human.

All that meant was that no cats were going to be wandering in randomly even though he might have 10 cards to just donate for the cause. He destroyed enough mobs himself and gotten rewards from it. He could technically spare 10 cards. It's just that no one had ever taken him up in an offer and he was now going to see if he could find any more cats anywhere in the building or the ad. Jason building. There. There had at least been cats there before he knew from the smell. There was a specific smell of this off-brand litter box that the neighbors had used that he knew meant that there was a cat there.

That or a very disgusting human that he never wanted to meet.

But that was a problem for later Bagel.

"I want to find a cat that hasn't been touched by a system yet and see if we can awaken them. Now. I understand... not every human's going to get cards if we do this, but..."

"You don't have to justify anything to us," Raul said. "We stand behind you on this. Just maybe my mom and dad can have decks then?"

Bagel swished his tail. "Of course, of course. You both want a mixed deck, right?"

They both nodded. Bro had gotten his deck the other day because he needed it to defend the store just in case Khaleesi gotten hers because he couldn't leave her without her own forward offense. But his parents were always with somebody else or working in The Avengers Guild and there was no need for them to get them there. Now. If there had been a mantle card that locked them down to a location and help them buy stuff, one of them would have taken it and then started expanding their reach across the street somewhere. But neither one had gotten one yet.

It was high on the list of things that they needed to do, so it was a priority for them and it was a priority for the NYPD.

"Pardon me not understanding... So why is your daughter still in school?"

Khalessis' father before, down his knife from his steak, dabbing his face. "Well, it's important for her to have a career and..."

Khaleesi was glaring daggers at her father. They had this conversation before, Bagel realized, and he had just waded into a mess. Her father went on about family values and how they needed her to know her stuff. Thankfully, she didn't bring up any of her earlier points. She had been so eloquent when she spoke to Bagel before and now she was just... listening.

Humans were odd creatures, especially in their little families. Though the mother was there, she deferred to her husband. Raul deferred to them both. Khaleesi said that she was an independent woman, but she also deferred to them, at least in their presence.

Bagel might never understand humans. He understood some humans, though, individually. Raul and Khaleesi he understood. The former through the quiet times that they had spent together. The latter since he never stopped her from talking.

"And whenever all of this settles, she need to be in a position to actually do something about it."

Everyone had finished their plates by this time and they were all looking at him he had realized what had happened.

"Dear, it's lovely how you want things to be the same but that's just... We need to take it one day at a time here."