It wasn't even a fast food place, but people kept coming in.

  At some point in time, Bagel was going to have to figure out a way to get actual humans to make actual food somewhere else.

  He could not support the amount of people that came through. Every time he got his cards out, he grabbed them the restock card and had to restock something else. He had to call in Raul and have him use his restock cards several times.

  Something was going to give eventually.

  The rules of the cards kept the Bodega as it was when he acquired it. The store has been fully stocked. It was the same thing for the Amish market down the street. People with restock cards were highly valued, almost as much as people with shop potential.

  "I don't know what's going on here but it it's like people want people have been showing up? The coasts are they going non-stop. And I feel so tired just using restock."

  "Did you hear? The news? Was all about it. Apparently people feel safe here so they are saying that you should if nothing else sleep within this area. There's a bunch of hotels around us that are like a capacity."

  Bagel, I hadn't heard the news because he had been too tired. Restocking Bodega. Alrighty, there was a line of people that had been no less than five at the grill. People came and went but his cooks were constantly moving.

  Using his card so much felt like he was trying to push a rope. There was a limit as to how many times he could summon things. There was a strict limit as the card wouldn't let him. We use it immediately. He had to use it. Let it cycle back into his deck and then if he didn't have on his hand he would have to wait until he drew it. This usually didn't take more than 5 minutes, but you can only recycle his deck or draw a card every 30 seconds.

  It was tedious. It was difficult and it was something he didn't want to do. It was also something that was vitally important that he do. He could have said Raul taking over because Carl would do what he needed. But bagel? After a long day he made his way upstairs away from the Madden crowds. They might think that Turtle Bay was a safe place and it was, but that didn't also mean that he could just flex and handle as many people as could show up. The Amish market had to also be a capacity. Additionally, he had no idea how the Chinese replace behind him was still open, but they were still doing it and he didn't know how to speak their language, so he might as well enjoy that. They had several delicious items that he had tried out.

  He liked the special chickens they had. He liked the sauce but he wanted them to be a tiny little bite size pieces if he was going to go through that kind of crunch. One of the drawbacks of living the place where the humans have great food was that if you found out food you couldn't eat and it was delicious?

  You would end up watching them for that particular food and you would want it so much. Bagel resolved to make a little. Stop there on the way up and have it be sent with him. He was all for delivery but if he was going to pass by? He would figure out a way to get it upstairs. He hated being so small.

  He did like exploiting people to grab stuff for him. "Raul, is your sister doing anything right now? I need a helper."

  " I think she was trying to do something on a spreadsheet so you might want to call her and interrupt her."

  "#She's your sister. Can you call her for me? I would really appreciate it!"

  Bagel Ave. Raul, the standard issue kitten face. It had already worked in so many situations with the humans that now it was more likely to be a problem when it didn't work than when it did. They knew that he meant business because he was a business cat and working at a serious business place. He just wanted to also be the most handsome boy on the block.

  "She said she's going to come right down. I texted her."

  Sure enough. No more than a few minutes later. Khaleesi was down looking as bubbly as normal. She they grabbed the food that he'd ordered which is to say she grabbed the food and he wrote on her shoulders until they got out to the second floor where he was surprised to see that for once, meatball was home. In fact Meatball, of all the people looked the sleepiest.

  "Me but what the heck is going on? Is everything all right?"

  "I'm having to swap out because I was trying to use we stock too much. I'm out of charges and I think that's there for my day today."

  Tonight was going to be preliminary. If they could get their act together, Bagel had planned so many things. His stupid body was not agreeing with him though. As he tried to once again summon the restock card. There wasn't my story's talk here. Savor the pot.

  ---

  "What do you mean the rent is too damn high?" Gladys said as she walked into the adventures.

  "I'm saying that people are telling me that. I'm not saying I agree. Ten credits is super reasonable for rent. That's like five or ten mobs," Khaleesi said. "Here let me ask Ashley."

  "Oh hell no," Ashley said. "I'm not getting into this argument."

  "Come on! You can sway his opinion. We need to have some rent control," Khaleesi said.

  Ashley flipped her hair back. "I own my building. What Bagel and Jellyside do with their tenants is their business."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Khaleesi was not getting it. "You don't get it. We're all working class now. We need to organize against these prices and keep them low."

  "Let me ask you something. How are people going to keep getting credits when we own all of Manhattan?"

  Gladys adjusted her glasses. "That's a fair point. We'll have the arena of course but... If you can't get a guild job in this borough?"

  "We've already worked it out. The ferry is going to drop people off around the city as the mobs get pushed further away."

  Gladys and Khaleesi both gave her a look.

  "What? I had a lot of time on my hands to plan this. Specialization is for insects. I also have a plan to invade upstate by Bear Mountain if you want to hear that?"

  "Girl I am intrigued. I thought we sent people upstate to like Westchester."

  "I know. I am trying to take Kate someplace warm but this damn cold front moving in is going to kill our plans."

  "The cold front?" Khaleesi said. "Now the destruction of civilization as we know it and the upending of so many human traditions and organizations?"

  Gladys chuckled. "My rotary club is still meeting. What civic organizations are you talking about?"

  It was Ashley and Kate's turn to stare.

  "What? We still play Mah Johng. There's not much else we can do. Do you ladies want to play with us? We're always happy to help new players learn."

  They both nodded.

  Ashley cleared her throat. "Not that I'm going to be one of the people that turns this down, but I never thought that it would take an entire system apocalypse for me to start picking up new hobbies."

  "That is kind of fucked up," Khaleesi said, moving in for a hug.

  Gladys joined them and Ashley let them hug her deeply. It was something she knew she needed but hadn't let herself say out loud. And the little kindness of being offered to join someone's mahjong group meant that she could pretend and not have to deal with whole mess for an hour or two.

  She had enough good people that could run the adventurous guild without her. And if her leaving for an hour destroyed the guild? She would just make another one. It was a well-oiled machine and she had plenty of lubricant.

  ---

  It wasn't something that he noticed immediately. In fact, it took Bagel the better part of a day to realize that something had changed. The problem is he didn't check the math that often. Janet did.

  "Boss, I think we need to talk about something. It appears that somebody else is moving in on our turf."

  All I took was one building being bought up or one block and all of a sudden one building along East ninety sixth street was unable for purchase. It was so subtle that he wouldn't even have noticed it.

  "Why can't I buy that? There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to buy that right?"

  "Besides the fact that you need to buy continuous areas of land? It looks like somebody bought it."

  "Who the heck would do that?"

  "Do I need to call Gladys?"

  "Call Gladys. It's time for us to go for a little ride. I didn't have betrayal on my cards this early."

  ---

  It was a quick car ride up there. For the first time, Bagel had actually decided to not turn a car into a drone. However, they use the car to move all the way back up. This one was a taxi cab that had been loaned to his organization.

  Some of the men that work in for Gladys were able to reserve it for his use. They took 1st avenue all the way up.

  "Just because we used to go up this way doesn't mean we have to continue doing it. I understand it's one direction of traffic but..." Bagel said.

  "We live in a society," Gladys said. "If we're going to be in charge of the city and then we need to have a little bit of decorum. Otherwise people are going to justify what we say. No matter how much money we have. It's easier to use soft power to get what you want. The real power that we have? It's just going to make us a Target."

  Bingling want to be a targeted but that was inevitable. At least his organization would be a Target. It'll be easier if he had a face organization run by humans. But... he had shareholders. He had meetings.

  He was eventually going to need to pay out bonds. Even though the investments, the Janet attract functionally works like stocks, people would expect to return. Or they would come after him.

  "It's a gas station?" Gladys said as they pulled up to the building.

  Sure enough, Bagel checked his interface and the lot had a recognized owner. I didn't tell him who but he could see that there was definitely a spot there where people could have been killing mobs. There were four or five spots in that building sized lot where cars had been moved away or pushed away to the side. It was almost like they had created a wall with cars, and someone had come by and sealed up the cars with stone and cement.

  Behind the six foot tall walls, several humans watched.

  "I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of those people. Do you want to talk to them?" Gladys said.

  "Did we bring enough food as an offering? Because I think that they look very hungry. And there's about a dozen of them."

  Gladys smiled, reaching behind herself. A duffel bag full of snacks and drinks was easily sling across her shoulder. Her goon parked them along first avenue, selecting a spot across the street.