Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

There was a special delivery of Middle Eastern food at the table when Ashley got in for her shift as the clerk.

It was good to be the clerk, especially when people brought food.

They rotated the job around so that nobody sat there for too long, but they all knew that there was a difference between the person who was overall in charge and the person that was there at the desk when the question got asked.

She actually liked to be there. When the question had asked she was still mulling over how to get into a studio to record something. It wasn't like she just had somebody lying around who was going to give them an opportunity.

Ashley wanted studio time and a beat to work with. It was unlikely that she was going to get a DJ to spend her a brand new beat that was going to rock the world but real good dream and she was definitely a dreamer.

But every girl who grew up thinking that she could be a rapper was a dreamer of some sort.

It just seemed like the dream was a little bit farther away now due to all those things going on outside.

One of the more tech savvy people had constructed a database for her to go through to make sure that things were on trend and from what she was seeing all of the easy gains had been made. There had not been a lot of signups recently. After the initial batch of volunteers sign ups, there were less people that either wanted to become an adventurer or were willing to go through a dungeon even as the dungeons decreased in frequency due to Bagel taking up more land.

She took a bite of Bak Lava. It crunched just right.

On the map behind her, one actually could see how they had been dominating the neighborhood. If it was a spot that had a dungeon breakout, they immediately had people on it.

In fact, there was a team standing by. They were ready to respond to pop up dungeons should they happen. It wasn't a paid position yet.

People did pitch in with credits for teams that sat. There was nothing happening for hours. It might be tedious, but tedious was good, especially after the bothersome earthworm dungeon.

She still had nightmares about those.

Nothing about this was normal. It was kind of grating in how there were normal parts played out.

There was no lull in the amount of dungeons and even if there were, that would make her feel worse. In a way she felt both freer and more constrained than she had before the system arrived.

Fear in the sense that she really owned her own schedule because she had been a founding member of the adventurers guild but more constrained because it was like she was an entrepreneur and this was her business but most of her business was just direct to people fight fires.

Ashley had never been a firefighter but she'd always had a thing for them. That she'd fallen in with Kate instead. Was perhaps a blessing. Boys did smell considerably. And Kate was always smelling good no matter what she did.

The map was up to date and accurate about the things that were important for her.

Two police officers came in and checked out the map.

They quickly got whatever they needed from the job wall and then immediately walked to the gear enclave in the back. It had been getting more and more popular the more that Rauls parents put into it.

"Excuse me!"

A blonde woman that looked like she'd walked uptown all day for the first time in her life was standing at the desk.

"Oh hi!" Welcome to the adventures guild, turtle Bay division. Are you here about getting cards or becoming a member or do you want to report something?"

She paused entirely too long as if waiting on the words to come to her. Ashley had seen the type. The system had taken from humanity as much as it as it had given. From this woman it must have taken even more.

" I..." She was really struggling to get something out. And Ashley didn't want to jump in and try to preempt her with anything but...

"Are you doing okay?"

There have been enough of a pause in the woman's speech that Ashley felt okay and interrupting her. She'd worked with people who had trouble processing speech quickly for and she wasn't going to make fun of the girl for it.

It was a bit irritating that she was taking so long to say something and then Ashley realized that she was being irritated because she expected such a rapid fire back and forth.

When have that been the case?

Everything she moved to New York City everything gotten used to it so this felt different.

"I'm okay."

She actually took that moment to really pause and assess the woman in front of her. She didn't appear to be a deck bearer and she looked like she was dressed for slutty new outfit day.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Slutty new outfit day was a tradition in the Northeast when the first day of spring finally gave you an excuse to wear that thing.

All women knew that outfit.

Some had been waiting to wear out to show themselves off. Ashley had celebrated it the first year and now she just had a good appreciation for her. It. It wasn't a declared holiday but you knew when it happened. Mostly because she could see miles and miles of skin on display that she would not have otherwise seen.

One thing that she had not thought about when deciding to work in a public-facing job was how much people needed a bit of prompting to actually ask for what they needed. Sure most people had no issues asking for it.

But this wasn't her job at the comic shop. This was the adventurers guild and she was clerking the desk because it was her turn to try to ask people to potentially get into real physical altercations with monsters that before a month ago had seen mythical at best and now the cause of much gnashing of teeth and suffering.

And if she got in the gig working on Broadway she probably still would have worked her job anyway because the money was good.

"I just want to help."

Then there were people that just sort of took up the space that you gave them

Having learned her lessons many times of the men who would engage her in conversation attempting to solicit her for her phone number when she was at the place that she was pretty much legally required to be at if she wanted to make rent payments, Ashley smiled. Ashley found the threat of homelessness coercive enough to actually go to work regularly.

But now she was strong enough that no one could deny her.

It wasn't like she could pay for her rent and punches but she could get enough credits too. Make something of herself. And still the woman sat in front of her trying to find the words she wanted to say. By now it's long grown awkward and Ashley was really hoping that this was not a trauma response. She couldn't handle that.

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Liza.

"Can I take this?" It came out like a question she had already answered.

Ashley let the woman go. It wouldn't be the first time that the other woman had taken someone under her wing, disappearing with her to try and work out something. Ashley did not feel equipped to deal with people's emotions during the Apocalypse. Well, unless that person was Kate and the emotion was lust. Then she felt adequately equipped to deal with it when she felt like it.

Well, when they both felt like it.

She checked her numbers and ran them again. They were well over 500 adventurers just at this branch of the adventurous guild and other branches began to get online and get their acts together. Maybe they might link systems and be able to start comparing things and swapping notes.

The biggest question she had was if she'd be able to start pushing people out further. Already they were taking quests up to 10 to 20 blocks away for open dungeons.

It had been an even exchange. And most of the people that had gone in to get started decks from the first couple days had already paid off their their loans with credits they'd gotten. In fact, checking with ledger, there are very few people that had not paid off their starter decks. It felt like an accomplishment. It felt like she was really moving. She wouldn't have minded paying off their decks before. Especially now that all you had to do to print money was fight more mobs but that would require her to actually fight more mobs instead of sitting here and trying to move pieces out of chessboard around. But really there weren't pieces on a chance for it was like they were cats and she was hurting them to the right spot to catch The mice.

And now she had enough cats.

Or rather, she could handle the stuff that she gotten with the new cats.

The work that the NYPD gave them now was manageable in a way that it had not been in the beginning and that was when she checked the date. Under the new calendar, they were going by the date since this majoration and it had been 18 days. It gotten over the increase in dungeons that had popped up early on. They've got new mobs and now whatever the system was going to throw at them next, she felt like they were ready for it even as they solidified their gains.

---

She adjusted her sleeves once again. From this distance the girl looked like she was finally okay with where I was she ever talking to and Ashley felt a little bit of relief. It was more like resignation that not everyone was going to be able to be helped and if she tried to save everyone that she would fail but she damn sure was going to do her best.

She returned the counter to glare at Ashley as if Ashley was trying to sell her something.

"I want to become an adventurer."

"Okay, standard deal is that you have to pay back the cards, although you will probably make it back after you kill that 20 enemies. Do you want to join a team, go solo or just pick up a shift?"

"What's the difference?" she asked.

Ashley handed her the sign in tablet. "I think you might do well picking up a shift. The mobs spawn on a schedule-"

"They do what?"

"-they spawn with regularity which is why we have people stationed at most of the corners around here."

It wasn't strictly true that they had every key corner covered, but with enough people to do rotating shifts and the fact that the spawn points didn't spawn as much during the night were less people needed at night and there was more of an ability to get more rare cards. It was like the system rewarded people for staying up late and playing on night mode. They were even special night upgrades to the mobs, those only spawned in some locations and not others.

"I have to work the streets?" she said.

"Ah. Anna?" Ashley said taking the tablet. "I'm Ashley. You don't have to work the streets, but it does help if you're available to do that and we'll get you leveling up and get you more cards. If you want to have a more specialized deck. No one's going to hold your hand but if you don't show up to a shift like that there will be repercussions."

Anna looked shocked, then resigned.

"Girl, we're in a war against a system that wants us all dead, so I'd appreciate if you took this seriously. If you can't do it alone then you should join a team. We have teams do shifts."

"That sounds a little bit better. I work better with the team so can you?"

Ashley got up. "I can make an introduction to a good team for you. I think that you'll like them a lot."

Actually walked Anna over one of the teams in the back that only had three members. There wasn't a hard cap on the amount of members in a team, but when you had to consider the fact that both people and their mobs had to move about on the battlefield independently, it was an issue of space. Especially if they didn't have enough flying mobs to counter anything, then all the ground mobs would tick the enough space not to match the.

People wanted to run away from conflicts when they felt that flight instinct. Hell, Anna had almost ran away from her already.

"Hey guys, I heard you're looking for another person so I brought Anna over here and just let me know if you would consider sponsoring a newbie and Anna. Once you you have worked something out with them. Come back to me and we'll get you a deck, all right?"

They looked like they were going to accept their unconditionally. Two men and a woman who had gotten everything from the catalog welcomed her with open arms and they all started talking as Ashley walked away.

She would get the scoop when Anna came back. But for now? She was happy that the girl had shown real initiative.