The sight of several deck bearers greeted Bagel that morning. They wanted lots of things like guilders did; they wanted breakfast; they wanted drinks, and they wanted to drink tea and look at his cards.

  It was the perfect thing for his business. A captive gathering; they told him what they wanted but then they bought what they needed. Janet kept a running tally of what they were looking for.

  They will show them what he had, and several of them drained their entire savings just to get multiple copies of something that they needed.

  It wasn’t the Pizza Rat card he was giving out, though.

  Just getting on multiple things that they were utility cards. For the first time since the system had arrived, he had ended a day with more utility cards and he had started with.

  Extra utility cards were always useful. People needed them in their decks.

  The spawn rate of utility cards had increased after the 12th day. It was almost like a jump from five to ten percent. He hadn’t done the math himself.

  He would have to go out and check it. Yet another thing on his list.

  “If you want to buy some more cards,” Bagel said. “Come back after you’ve done some more or I’ll take some of yours and trade them in. We’re open to buying or trading. I pay the rates listed on the deck builder website. If only... to appease my artificial intelligence.”

  “It’s honest work, right?” Holly said, tugging on her french braids.

  “Of course we’ll be back. You’re the only game in town right now.” Her companion nodded.

  “What do you mean by that?” Bagel said.

  “If we want to trade in our credits for anything… it’s not really… there are few options. This block is special like that,” the first one said.

  There was another card shop somewhere, just not in his neighborhood.

  “Last time I went to the other one? It wasn’t there. Something happened?”

  Bagel snorted. “Is there a shop or not? I’m interested in the shop. Maybe I can make a deal.”

  The blonde woman locked eyes with Bagel. She wrung her hands. “I’m sorry to tell you, but some thing happened. It really just disappeared.”

  Bagels stomach turned. Of course, they were in the middle of an apocalypse.

  Who could have imagined what monsters were capable of — destroying an entire store?

  “Attacks on stores happened every day. How was this different from a robbery? Was it a new monster or something?” All humans were looking at the ground all the sudden.

  It was as if they were all trying not to say anything. Bagel smelled something familiar. They were sweating.

  “It wasn’t a mob. It was humans. And we are standing.”

  Bagel sputtered. Other humans had taken down a card seller? He had the NYPD sitting outside and The Adventurous guild, and he felt safe for the entire time that they had been there until this moment. If someone had raided another vitally important card shop...

  Its ramifications were going to eat him up if you thought about it too long. Humans had a long history of hurting each other, and this did not differ from Copernicus’ lessons.

  “And we don’t want it to be. I thought it is despite how many generations of humans have worked so far too about this society,” Lisa said.

  “This is such bullshit. Good people died… Whoever did this, their greediness knows no bounds.”

  Bagel had heard of falcons, greed and the normal everyday humankind as well. "I’ve never heard of Falcon’s greediness, but now I'll tell anyone. The humans here are the very most understanding and supportive people I can ask for."

  Holly and Lisa smiled.

  They girls drifted off looking at his drink selection.

  It wasn’t something that was going to need Bagels to respond.

  He had other priorities.

  He wanted to eat a pair of falcons.

  Of course it was going to taste like chicken one night? He knew it would be great to get his claws around Todd the Peregrine falcon. Maybe.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Do you guys want something to eat while you’re here?” Bagel said. “We still have a full breakfast menu. I keep restocking it daily so that you guys feel welcome.”

  He could see the greed well up in Lisa’s eyes.

  All he was offering the her was just some breakfast foods, perhaps some hash browns and eggs and some sort of outlet.

  She looked ready to give him the keys to the kingdom. It always thrown him how many humans deferred to how cute he was.

  Bagel thought about how his whole setup differed from anything else. He thought about the man across the street who gave him baklava.

  He considered the girls that had come into his life and dragged him into a dungeon, and it kept bringing him around.

  He thought about Meatball who was napping in the back in between dungeons. He thought about Ashley and Kate and how gratefully was that they had thought to bring him. He hadn’t even thought to bring himself and he had got some experience.

  He got level twenty five with them.

  The adventures accepted some breakfast. They paid with some credits made from turning in or selling their cards. He was benefiting from them in more than one way.

  He purred.

  It felt good to see these adventures. At least in some small part, he was trying, and he had to pulled out his deck to refresh the amount of food and hot sauce for them.

  Lisa was pouring hot sauce into her eggs like it was a job. Holly was just staring at her.

  They gave him one credit each for a card and a breakfast. Holly eyed the utility cards, of course, as well as several cards from out of the neighborhood. He was learning more and more that he had to ask specific people to pick up cards for him like they were a special gopher service.

  Come to think of it, that was probably what he needed. He probably needed to pay people to go out and get cards for him, whether it was through fighting or specifically going to other boroughs, buying cards off of other card dealers.

  There had been only a handful of card dealers in the city and now there was one less.

  So if someone was going to have to check out other parts vendors, then you at least wanted to see what they had. He couldn’t just take off like that. But he could ask somebody else.

  He eyed the woman who seemed to not consider a limit to hot sauce in the corner. She looked up to the job.

  She would do the job really well.

  Something about the smell made him want to trust her. If Raul showed up, he could even tag along with the women. He could leave his sister with Bagel while he negotiated for new cards.

  It wasn’t like he could pick up a taxi soon. The only things that moved now were police cars and sometimes military vehicles.

  There was no obvious way to commandeer any of those, so he was going to have to figure out another way. "Excuse me miss," Bagel said, "but while you’re here, let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about adding into another type of energy and grabbing some cards? I could pay you a little for your trouble."

  "I really need to get some things that are not pizza rats into my circulation and it would just help a ton if I could get somebody to do that on a more regular basis. I might have a little flyer on the adventures soon for the deck barriers to see if they can do that, but while you’re here?"

  Holly paused eating her western omelette for a moment. There was a piece of ham stuck to her upper lip. "You’re saying that you’re looking for some cards that I can’t get in this shop. Is that what I’m hearing?"

  “I’d gladly accept anything worthwhile I could find in a dungeon. I understand sometimes I don’t know is a good loot. Sometimes I don’t get any good loot at all, which is why I have so many concrete lizard cards left to play with.”

  Lisa looked at her companion, and none of them looked anything but content to be eating. “What do you think?” Lisa said. “We just walk up to another neighborhood, kill some different mobs for a while and then go back what we feel like we need support of turtle bay.”

  “I heard the mascot card from Times Square is good.”

  Both of them look at him for a second. It was true the mascot card was good. It came in different types depending on which one you get. If they could stick around long enough...

  Bagel pitched them the idea of heading into the Midtown of Manhattan to get more cards and to just have a little walk around, and if they moved every half an hour, they could get more cards.

  Then he could use their credits for whatever they wanted.

  The women smiled and, as they often did, promise that they would return with something for him if they could. He was hoping for at least ten cards.

  It was the first time that he would be able to sell cards from Midtown Manhattan. Those would go fast. Anything brand new did, especially his utility cards.

  There were several specific places where you could go that were more likely for you to get an item and then any place else. Those were the places that he wanted to send Kate and Ashley.

  If they all picked up more item cards for him, picking up more cards that could benefit them. Mantle cards we’re going to be going to be the problem though. People only received Mantle cards as gifts integrated into their decks or rarely find them in dungeons. That’s meant that he didn’t really have a way to produce some more of them lively. If the item thing panned out and people will go there more often.

  He needed a reliable way to get more mantle cards and the side from killing people with them. He wasn’t able to do that. So he was on the lookout for a way to determine if a dungeon had mantle cards in it.

  It would be easy enough for him to set out a bounty for the guilt and see what they could get for him.

  He took a couple minutes to work with Janet to create a bounty for the adventurers guild

  It was up to them to figure out what he wanted, but if they could? Then it would be much easier. Already they were trying to clean as much information as possible from the previous ones that ran and if this was something legitimate, then it could turn the knowledge that they had into something usable. Because the same constant dungeons kept popping up. It was just them not having time to go through every single one. If they knew their dad was going to pop up with a mantle card, he was going to have to have people already on it as soon as possible.

  But then again, he was only one cat, and it was a long just sheer luck that the NYPD had set up shop next to him, giving me the opportunity to have the new Adventurer skill the Turtle Bay set up as well.

  It was a safety from his medical card that allowed him to really play into it. Already he’d almost cleared half the block.

  Within a few more days he expected to buy the whole block out and then ask the only which way he should expand. Or perhaps he’d be able to purchase a Mantle card or have someone get it on for him or, in the best case, he would tell the dungeon crew to grab it and come back.

  He had quests to issue.

  This was fully rewitten and reposted 29 August 2025.

  patreon! 5 chapters ahead!