Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"You want to bring in how many cats?" Bagel did not believe what the older cat was telling him.

"One hundred."

"Well that would be like herding-" Bagel thought of an appropriate analogy. "-humans. So you want one thousand cards?"

Copernicus looked puzzled. Of course he did. Math didn't come naturally to cats. Bagel had leaned on his natural inclination to get someone else to do his work and had outsourced numbers to Janet in both cases.

This meant that unless it was very important, he didn't do math in his head. He wanted a nice clean spreadsheet or something to read. That was one he was able to get his brain to bear. Anything else was not enough for him.

"That is a lot of cards. That's about a day's haul, isn't it?"

Bagel nodded. "The bigger problem is how are you going to get them. I don't know how many cats there are in turtle Bay. There isn't a cat census or anything like that."

Copernicus looked serious. Both cats sniffed in the air as an unfamiliar scent wafted past them. He was pretty sure he couldn't find a cat. The hardest part was going to be training them.

Bagel had its hands full training meatball the first couple weeks. Now that she was a month old, it was a lot easier. If they did any more than one or two cats at a time, Bagel himself would have been overwhelmed and he knew that.

"I don't think I could handle training more than one cat at the time," Bagel said.

"But if each cat that you train trans another one... And then further down the line, eventually we'll have a critical mass of cats."

Bagel smiled. He was very interested in what was going through other cat's head. He wanted to ask about the rest of the board of jellyside layer private equity but... It wasn't his place and he knew that Copernicus would bring it off when he was ready. So far, it hadn't really been his problem.

They asked for money, he gave them money and so far, it hadn't been an issue. The TSA liaison from the city didn't know that he wasn't dedicating all of his money to that. In fact, they hadn't sent anyone recently.

"I haven't heard from the city in a while about this. The police officers that are here are being run ragged. Should I be looking into that more closely?"

Copernicus shrugged. "You held the legally required meeting for the shareholders, right?"

"If I say yes and I say no one showed up... Are you going to let the humans know?"

Copernicus smiled.

It was going to be one of those things. Wasn't it. Copernicus clearly had the skills or was pretending really well. Bagel was good at negotiating with humans, but in the absence of someone to actually talk to about this, he hadn't... He had been floundering.

"So just keep doing what I've been doing?" Bagel said.

Copernicus padded down the street, then summoned a bull mob.

He got a glimpse of the card.

---

Street Bull 100 HP, 3 Normal Energy

Gore
90 Damage

Weakness: Psychic

---

It was nice but due to the cost it wasn't something to base your deck around. Wanted to and a 10-card deck would be more than enough. They left the safety of the safe zone and had ventured out a little bit down the street to wait for some spawns.

The normal spawns in turtle Bay were of course pizza, rats or Omega rats. The bull went right through one of the Omega rats, then it kept going.

"Ah a two for one deal," Copernicus said as it slammed through a second Omega rat as it continued southwards.

The bull has reached almost a bull block away before it stopped and turned back around, looking for more targets.

There weren't that many. That's close to the adventurers guild, they had the streets on lockdown. Each branch of Street was now guarded by one adventure for a shift. And many them were able to guard a block of Street and then a further block on the other side.

He could have kept going with the ball but there was limit to how much you could control the mob when you couldn't see it. Summoned mobs could keep going and we're independently but if you just send your money away on a fetch quest you wouldn't get much in the way of feedback as to what you were doing.

Deck bearers needed constant feedback.

Or at least, Bagel wanted that from his deck. He knew it was people who were doing their jobs because the Bodega was making money.

That was really all he wanted it to do was make money. The fact that it was also helping him with these cards that Copernicus was scooping up meant that he was going to be doing good business.

Bagel sent one of his mobs after. This time he sent to collect all the cards up. As long as he he urged the worker to follow the Street Bull, they would do the difficult part of actually picking up things.

"Thumbs, eh? That would be great " Bagel said.

"Hands too. Those would be nice."

The pair of cats followed the line of kills down second avenue all the way to forty second street.

There were guild members on each block happy to see them. A handful waved to Bagel as they moved around. He lifted up his chin in greeting. They would welcome him as their new overlord, if he required it of them.

"Do you think they know what's going to happen next?" Copernicus said as they turned east.

"They think that they know."

"That's dangerous especially if they're trying to make it it a reality."

Humans were unpredictable at the worst of times. But now that things had gotten to a new normal?

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Things were even worse.

It was officially going to be the wrong type of day as Bagel happened upon someone he recognized.

"Copernicus, duck!"

"I don't see any ducks?"

"No, follow me-"

The two cats ran, Bagel all out towards a doorway over a concrete barricade. Bagel cowered against it as he tugged on Janet to get out of sight.

"What is going on?" Copernicus hissed.

There were several loud footsteps. Both cats froze. Bagel could see fear in the other cats eyes.

"It's just the guys from the building department. I did not expect him to come back so soon."

Copernicus looks like he was about to slam bagel on the wall next to them. " Building department? You should have told me something."

"I didn't want to bother you."

Through the slit in between the concrete, they could see the man in a suit walking up second avenue. He clearly had an agenda and just as clearly looked like he was being a bit ruffled by the amount of mobs.

"Fifty credits say that he won't be able to make it through the fences," Copernicus said.

"You didn't..." Bagel whispered.

The fence that kelis had installed was set up across the southern part of forty forth street. They were two blocks south of that. The adventurers guild person who had drawn that job had also been assigned to take down any mobs that spawned during his shift. He'll be very bored but Bagel knew him due to the adventurers guild garb.

There were not that many people that were still wearing suits and ties in the apocalypse, but the man from the building department always wore the finest thing available. That was the reason that Bagels was pretty sure that he was here to to try and shake him down for something. But Bagel didn't have anything to give him a man. According to the official documents, every credit that the TSA was given or invested in the TSA went straight into buying up land. And in the absence of any direction, they'd began buying up the block directly east. Or they would once this surge was over.

"You're getting us all the way to first avenue?" Copernicus said.

"Let's go."

Both cats recalled their mobs, Bagel using the mental command to return it back into his close proximity. Janet was there but she was not very visible. The building department guy would not have noticed her on her own, especially when she was going camouflaged.

Copernicus startled when Janet came down into their orbit.

"Gah. I will never get used to active camouflage on a flying summon."

"It's a blessing," Bagel said.

Two adventurers guild scouting drones zoomed past them, the whirr of their flight louder than Bagel has remembered.

"It's fine. We're all fine. Our summons are here."

They moved. Above them the black wood of the pub was distinct against the concrete jungle that surrounded it.

They moved. Before he knew it, they were at the corner of forty second and first. Next to him was a little patch of dirt and a stone staircase. This is for the fences. From here, he can see the East River. Landscape lowered in front of him towards the highway that bordered the river and the neighborhood. Below them east of first avenue and south of forty second street was an undeveloped parcel of land, one that the adventures guild has left for target practice.

Forty second street continued to the ramp. The north side held the United Nations compound. A party of adventurers guild members were actively working on some mobs on the highway ahead of them.

"You want to help them?" Copernicus said.

Bagel urged his summons forward. Below them they heard a ton of shouts.

The undeveloped area dropped off and on the far side several dozen adventurers were waiting for something. There was a clearly marked area on the southeast corner that they were all loosely arranged around.

Two men riding summoned mobs trotted into the zone. A flying mascot mob was in between them, taking potshots at something Bagel could not see.

There was a cacophony of noise as dozens of mobs followed them immediately afterwards. The bright lights of what had to be at least fifty summoned cards lit up the area.

"They're herding the mobs."

Copernicus was staring as much as he was. Bagel couldn't understand what the humans were doing until the herd of mobs had arrived and the amount of summons overwhelmed them. But that wasn't the surprising part. The surprising part was how they all work together the same time doing the same thing.

"I don't think we could ever get cats to do that," Bagel said.

"That's far too much coordination."

They watched as the mobs were slowly whittled down. The humans are smart, they had waited until most of the mobs had gotten into the center of their kill zone before spawning. Their cards. Mobs tended to go towards the closest things so whatever was going on there had definitely been planned out thoroughly. In fact, it didn't look like this was the first time either. With the amount of cards that has dropped in one feel swoop, Bagel was now very interested in the process.

"Those weren't just mobs in our neighborhood were they?"

It had been dozens of mobs before the line had ended. Potentially a hundred or more had been known down by the guild in one feel swoop.

"Yeah they have to be taking them from the other neighborhoods. Don't they? I see three mob types?" Copernicus squinted. "They're too far away for me to be able to get a good view of them. But we can go in closer and find out what they were?"

Bagel hemmed. They might as well.