Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"So meatball you know how humans don't really have a sense of smell? And you know how like they're very oblivious to idiot and we could even tell when they've been. What's that word?"

"They've been kissing. Yeah, I'm aware."

Meatball was glaring daggers at Kate and Ashley.

"Well it's kind of like that if what jelly side layer is right then what I want you to do and what they're probably going to want you to do is to go through and find more cats. And if we have to give them unbalanced decks that wouldn't really work in a fight then we will."

"I can appreciate that."

Kate and Ashley had their own place literally across the street but they'd come over to have dinner with Raul's family and Khaleesi. Of course Khalessi was going all out with the steak. Not only that, she had made several cat size portions for them.

"So what you are going to be doing when you're not training is trying to find more cats that might be willing to become deck bearers?" Khaleesi said, handing a plate of finely diced steak to meatball.

"That's kind of what we wanted her to do. We also wanted her to level up and get some experience as well but that's really something that is on her own time," Bagel said, accepting his own plate of steak.

It's not that he didn't like eating large chunks of meat, it's just that he preferred when it was put into manageable small amounts. Liza was great about this and she had taught her daughter right.

Cats were not that big. Their mouths were not even that large. They were adequately sized.

So the standard size of cat food was also there for a reason. That reason being that humans didn't want to give up the goods.

Bagel had appreciated all the work that Khaleesi did in cutting him up for them and the teenager was now trying to figure out what they preferred in terms of how well done they wanted their meat.

"So this one right here is rare," Khaleesi said pointing to the pinkest portion of the steaks she placed in one of the cats. "You'll find that on your left side. Rare or a medium well..."

Bagel dug in not needing to hear about how steaks were made. The lecture was for Meatballs information.

The cats will contend to eat the various cuts of meat provided by the family thing about the bodega. Bagel in particular was very pleased that he was getting this opportunity to do a flight mistake as the girl had called it.

"If you can do this again when we have another cat coming in then I assure you you will be paid handsomely." Bagel finished his plate and gave Khaleesi a nod.

"You're going to have to provide the steak if you want me to feed you but I can do that if you provide me with money. I do like a fair bit of money or I guess in this case credits."

"You know that you can make money killing mobs out there right? Like that's that's totally an option for you," Kate said as she swirled her wine.

The unspoken thing was that Bagel had been stretches of roads around them so now she would have to travel at least o'clock to go to a spawn point. All the spawns were being cleaned out quickly to stop anything from over running them. There wasn't any word about what would happen to a neighborhood that couldn't keep their spawning problem in check.

Bagel shuddered to imagine the possibility.

That was just him worrying about base spawns. Instance dungeons showing up was a different problem.

Why they didn't know what was going to happen would be what would happen later that day at 3:00 p.m.. thus far, every 3 days something interesting had happened and they were hoping that this would be an uninteresting day.

"So what do you think's going to happen?" Ashley said as she cut her steak into thin strips. She had not put ketchup on her plate but she was definitely eyeing the steak sauce.

Human costumes made no sense to Bagel for a variety of reasons. What this in particular irked him. She clearly wanted to use one of the sauces for her food.

Just as clearly, no one was going to grab it and give it to her. He did have some ability here. They were above the Bodega. He owned the building that they were in. It was his domain. It would be so easy for him to call a mob up here for that.

Had she asked, he would have gladly done it.

But she was never going to ask.

And Kate was not watching the tension between Ashley and the bottle of ketchup. Sooner or later, one of them was going to crack.

"Do you think they're going to spawn new cards? Or different cards?" Kate said. " My money is on an increase in dungeons for a day. What did the system say during integration that the games were going to keep going on until humanity won 90% of the Earth's surface or was wiped down to 5%?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"It was something like that. I don't think it comes off that often," Khaleesi said.

Ashley grimaced. "They've mentioned it once or twice on television but I can't watch television anymore. It's like they took the soul out of it. I just do what I can."

For the first second, since welcoming them in and preparing them them, lunch, Khaleesi paused in a Furious activity. Was it fear? Trepidation? He didn't know.

Then she let out a slow fart and he grimaced.

"Sorry!" She said, sheepishly. "Lots of onions and today."

"Indeed," Meatball said."I have to say that this is delicious and I really appreciate all coming together. I know we just met but I feel like we've known each other for a long time. I feel so welcome."

Khaleesi brightened. "Mom and dad said you could stay here for as long as you want. We've even got a little place for you to stay and I know they wanted me to wait until they came back up but can I show you? "

She was also happy to show them the little cat tree that had a spot for both cats to sleep in should they wish. It wasn't exactly the same as Bagels but it was damn close to it and he could appreciate a craftsmanship.

For Meatball, this was her first time seeing a cat tree and she was enthralled.

Bagel felt warm.

Thankfully, they were both done eating so they both ran up into it and gave it a shot. Two of the three layers, they frolicked around and he felt really good about it. It was the kind of play that he had hadn't had in almost two weeks and he hadn't realized how much he had missed it. But being here together with another cat and actually being able to initiate any kind of play felt wonderful.

There was even a time there where it felt like things were just normal and beyond feeling right. It felt like it had it had been something he'd been meant to do his entire life. He had his own and he's shown her before but the fact that they grown other way to get another one to make them both feel more comfortable. It warmed his heart.

He found himself wanting to take a nap.

"Don't forget the thing that is about to happen," Meatball said.

The humans, Khaleesi, Ashley and Kate were all watching them as they ate. Khaleesi would probably say that this was entertaining and she still had not explained what that meant to him. The system was no help in this regard either and I think that would have to consult before. He had left Janet to run the store.

Janet 2, Ashley 's salvaged AI was not around either to ask. In this grand scheme of things he was trying to pick it up by context, but ultimately humans are so weird it would take him forever to get under control.

---

"Khaleesi, have you been doing all right?" Ashley said. "Because if you can keep cooking like this then I will do whatever I can to keep you supplied with food."

It was the least she could do. In the corner, with the cats looked. They were napping curled up cuddled next to each other and it was just the cutest thing. None of them wanted to say anything in case they spoiled it. Ashley found that she could speak in a normal voice but did not want to go anything above that.

"If you can keep getting me food whether it's through Bagel or through some other means I will keep cooking for you guys. Not being able to go to school in person right now is just killing me. I miss my friends," she said.

Ashley took a second. The clock read ten minutes until the hour. "There isn't much time left. Do we want to be outside when this happens?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "I think if the guild's going to need to be there for this so we might as well make that a thing."

The unspoken part about how she had spent the better part of a day with a megaphone encouraging people to come join the neighborhood adventurers guild to squash the dungeon problem floated unbidden into her consciousness. It had been a rough day but they'd got it done. And now they were probably expecting her to be a leader for this.

"I think it's going to be bad. I think it's going to be really bad," Kate said. "And we need to be out there with the people. And I know what are you going to say; you're going to say that your summoned cards are already out there."

Ashley grinned back. As much as she wanted to protect the neighborhood, Khaleesi needed to be protected first. Then...

"Both of your parents are at the guild," Ashley said.

Khaleesi nodded. "They wanted to help."

It was bold and impractical. Paolo had accepted a heal card. Besides that, they only had their pizza rat cards. The situation itself is laughable and neither one having anything else was morphed to the fact that they needed the slight bit of protection at having the system personally gave them.

Just getting the system gave them the option to get perks and get experience points. Thus giving them the ability to summon up the four pizza rat limit every new deck barrier faced.

"I know that all this is happening around us and that the world has gone to shit but there's not going to be a new New York unless we make it that way. So I'm all for doing your best. I'm all for you helping out. But Kate will bust my ass if I let you walk outside during this. So if we are going to go downstairs To the guild, let's all go together"

"Our relationship might be a disaster, but you don't have to be," Kate said placing a hand on Ashley's shoulder as she stared down. Khaleesi.

"I don't even like boys. I mean girls," Khalessi said, coughing out a lung all of a sudden.

They were all silent for a very long second. Then they were all yelling and then speaking over each other. That woke up the cats, who hadn't really been asleep. They had just been cat napping.

Ashley paused to try to take in the yelling, It was cute how Kate was trying to pretend to accept Khaleesi and she was trying to protest that she wasn't a lesbian.

"I'm not a lesbian. I don't like girls."

"Sure sure that's fine. It doesn't hurt us at all. We accept you no matter who you are or what you are."

"No really. I'm not trying to come out to you guys. I really just like boys."

"Right? Well if you change your mind, you can always talk to us. We're always here," Kate winked exaggeratingly slow.

Ashley grinned. It wasn't the first time that Khaleesi had full-on blushed in their presence, but it was the most interesting. Like a lot of girls her age, she hadn't gotten everything figured out. Which was fine, but the fact that Kate and Ashley were clearly in some sort of situationship together. If not girlfriends, it might have made her think that she had to put on some appearances.

Ashley would never put up appearances. At least not after hooking up with her ex enemy.

"Khaleesi it's fine. We literally don't care. You don't have to prove anything to us. We are in your corner," Ashley said.

Khaleesi smiled, a real genuine happy smile. "I just want to do something."

"Ah youth. Always trying to weasel away into a girl's heart." Kate got up and began cleaned the table. "Come on Khaleesi we are all going to face this together."