Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"What's first?" Bagel said.

"Boss, we could branch out a little bit further maybe? It seems like if jelly side layer found out about this they would want to use it as well. If only because it provides food and water and shelter for so many people."

"What did people call them on the internet?" Bagel said.

"Navidson houses or something like that," Meatball said."You really need to get with it. The internet is not going anywhere and the humans are definitely using it to talk shit about us."

"Meatball I think that you should pick this one. I have a home here but I even though I got this from going on a dungeon delve, I want you to have your own place."

"Oh that's very sweet of you but this is my place now. I'm not kicking you out and you can stay but I feel at home here. And I know that my human would have wanted this."

Naturally, the two of them were in the little cat house/ scratching post that had been affixed up in the ceiling. Because nothing said home like a ceiling cat resting place. Bagel was still working at The kinks of the name. Was it a ceiling cat layer? Or a ceiling cat home? He hadn't decided on it because well he'd been busy trying to figure out what to do with the card. He couldn't sell it. Or rather the NYPD so that if you was going to sell it they wanted it but he didn't need the credit. For the first time, he was going to have enough to buy another building.

Brown haired woman with braids walked in and the two of them ceased their talk. Bagel made his way on ceremoniously down to the counter, landing spectacularly.

"Well hello Mister Proprietor," Holly said. " I've got some cards to sell here and looks like your prices have changed a lot. Do pizza rats really only cost two credits now?"

There was a sign about the pizza rat cards that they were only two credits based on the amount of cards that he'd gotten of that type. More than anything else. The card itself outnumbered everything else by a large margin of at least five to one. In many cases, the newly upgraded version of it was there as well but that he was selling for five credits

"We have the upgrade version if you want, although I charge five credits for those. You seem like you don't have any problem taking down one of the advanced ones though. Are you looking for something in particular?"

Meatball landed silently behind him. There was something in the way that she moved that triggered his whiskers to twitch. Normally, he wouldn't be able to tell if she was completely something but then there was the visual cues as well as the smell. Meatball well he knew her smell. And now, the woman was staring at the second cat.

"Have you've got an accomplice there?" Holly reached out to Pat Pat Meatball but then shrank back. "I'm so sorry. Is it okay if I pet your partner?

Bagel nodded his acceptance. Meatball made herself available as the woman squealed with glee.

It wouldn't take much for them to act more like this. He was getting more of a sense of how the humans had it allowed. This divide between men and women too exist and expand. It made no sense to him. But then again, so many things didn't make sense unless he went back into some system. System inserted type of knowledge. You're bust facts all day if you wanted to about humans and their program activities. But didn't really help him with what was in front of him.

" I'm looking for some thing that compliments my Deck," Holly said fully engulfed in fur as she wrangled meatball.

"Certainly," Bagel said. "What exactly do you feel like you're missing in terms of? Flying power? Are you looking for a certain type of card?"

"I did want one of those possum dragons I've seen but I think they're native to someplace uptown? So I might make a trip up there eventually. Do you have any of those by by chance?"

Bagel looked at his cards and smiled. "We have one possum dragon in stock and it's twenty credits. The area you're looking for is I think Washington heights. You bring some back, we will buy them for competitive rates."

"Very competitive rates," Meatball said from within Holly's grasp.

Holly stood up straight and then looked down, pausing her petting. She then placed Meatball on the counter. "I did not know that you were talking cat and if you were then this just got really weird, didn't it?"

"It doesn't have to be weird. I'm still a cat after all. Hell, Bagel sits on girls laps all the time."

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"It's a great place to sit honestly."

"Well okay that's acceptable." Holly held out her arms and Meatball was instantly back in there, knowing the value of idle hands during a sales spiel.

"We don't really have anything else that different that we do have water and fire type cards. If you need that, we've got a selection of those and we have a lot of mascot cars. They have some synergy and I have a little bit more variety than you would think because there aren't a lot of the same artwork on the cards. They are functionally the same but they all look different enough that you will tell when they spawn. It's still kind of like a human that's just wearing a different costume."

They tried it out several times, summoning multiple mascots as bagels slotted the card in. It helped sales if they tried before they bought. By using them and the fact that they had so many different artwork of the same card really made him think about if they might have some different powers.

And yes they did, the ones that were dressed like flying superheroes or actually able to fly for a little bit. This meant that there was an advantage to had gone in a whole rabbit hole with Janet.

That had been trying to determine which of his already gotten cards were part of that. Then Khaleesi came by and helped him out with that and in one moment of inspiration she helped them make a flying and non flying mascot pile. The flying ones sold faster, surprising no one. In fact, Bagel was absolutely sure that he would need to restock those in particular soon.

"I'll make a similar deal for any mascots with flying abilities," he said. "If you decide to go to Times Square for some godforsaken reason. It really feels different now."

The humans had said that before and he was going to run with it. He had no idea of how it was before except for his memory of movies and how it was in there.

"I'll consider it. The commute here from Jersey used to be murder but now I can't even get a city bus to move. I should have gone back to get my dog but... The boyfriend is taking care of him so..."

The smell of dog was still upon her. Normally, Bagel would not deign to remark on it. But this seemed like an oversight from a previous life. A good growl would keep dog lovers away. Everyone knew that cats were the real city dwellers. I had no need for cat parks. Cats were elevated creatures that could poop inside of litter box letting humans clean up their waste as was custom.

Dogs? Perish the thought.

"It's probably a good thing that he couldn't come here. You wouldn't wanted to see all this." Bagel had his own ulterior motives. It involved encouraging more dogs to be on Manhattan. Or at least his little neighborhood in Manhattan.

"Yeah. It's been weird. Anyway... Let me have uhhh... Cat do you have any hard liquor?"

She picked out some rare cards including two flying mascots, paid in full and got lunch. Bagel was pleased with her lack of dogs. He could only hope that it would continue to be that way.

If was the first time that the entirety of Rauls family, along with Kate, Ashley and Meatball had gotten together for a big meal and it had gone sideways. At least in Bagels eyes.

All he did was mention that he was looking at the building after the Amish market as his next acquisition. It would cost him 6000 credits and it didn't seem like it was actually worth it, for how much they would have to do to get it ready.

"So I did my recon of the Pickler building or what was left of it and yeah we might need backup," Raul said. His father was sitting in with them this time because he was insisting on being a part of something. It was plan for clearing a building and the family was deciding as a group if they would be putting up a bid for the guild to get people.

"How tall is the building?" Bagel said. " I know that the first two floors are basically taken up by what used to be stores but like... How many floors do we have to clear?"

Khaleesi had architectural plans, because of course she did. She had brought them out for Janet to turn into a holographic rendering of the building. "Based on the plans, there are six floors that we need to deal with primarily. It is unclear if we can buy a building if there are mobs in it but this building is big enough for mobs to spawn there."

"Mobs could spawn in these buildings?" Her father said. "I'm so glad we came here when we did."

Bagel flicked his tail, a bit of irritation that the humans were so...well he had gotten used to them now.

"The drones can see through most of the windows but there are internal portions of the building that remain hidden or locked. That is what we are concerned with," Khaleesi said. "We can't see in there. And there have been loud noises heard there often."

Kaye raised a hand from the living room.

"Loud noises? If there were mobs they should have broken down any doors and gotten out. If it was a dungeon... Well not we would have found that. I'm actually confused as to why we don't just break down the doors."

The group turned to Raul and his father. Raul shrugged. "Tell them, pops."

"There's a real chance that the ore system owner is still alive and well. We want to make sure that they're talked to. Also despite the cost being..."

"Six thousand."

"Six thousand, thank you Bagel. We still are relying on the TSA to get him the money and they have... Well they've kinda abdicated their power."

Bagel could feel some heat on himself. Why did it always feel like hotness when their eyes were on him? "It's true they're... I should say that they haven't held any meetings since the initial one, but I can't exactly say why. This whole thing... It rubs me the wrong way."

"Well I'm available to go to the next meeting," Khaleesi said. "Dad if you want to come with?"

"I can't see why not. Either way if the bonds are still being issued, maybe they're not... They could change everything." The gleam in his eyes was predatory. Rauls father has some scheme in mind and Bagel... Didn't mind it. For all the things he thought would actually happen, this in itself was just a way for them to do something.

"Either way, I still say we pay for adventure guild members to be out backup. We are not facing any creatures that are any more deadly than a pizza rat. They just might have more time or something."

There was never enough time for the shenanigans he wanted to pull.