The men nodded to him. They both had greasy, curly black hair, white shirts, and black aprons. If they weren't brothers, they had to at least be family.

  Bagel urged his mount forward, giving him a good look at his prize.

  It was perfect. It smelled delicious. It was everything he ever wanted in his short recollection.

  The sign told him that it was a Baba Ganoush, but to him it looked like crinkled delight. Since he had been a kitten, he had been through so much, but this looked like the human concept of a rent-controlled apartment.

  The only problem was that it appeared to be almost as big as his head. The pastry was roughly half his size—if he was pushed down into a small, square-shaped bread-dough format.

  He was ready to go ahead and have a bite, but first he needed to make sure to pay the guy behind the counter. That should be simple. He waited expectantly, wondering what was taking the man so long to discern his obvious intent.

  The man rubbed the back of his neck, and Bagel came to a rather unfortunate realization. Just like his Bodega shop, they sold things. He hadn't brought any money. He didn't know what he had been expecting. His cat instincts had gotten the best of him, thinking things were free.

  Bagel was a business cat. He had to remember that. It elevated him above all of his kind. He could not just forget that. His honor demanded that he pay the man, somehow.

  "Perhaps we could work out a trade?" he asked, eyeing the pastries.

  "I tell you what. The first one will be free. You work across Second Avenue, right?"

  Bagel nodded, even as his fur bristled from desire warring with pride…

  "Well, then this one is on the house. My first talking cat, can you believe it?"

  His mount accepted the succulent square and held it out for him to bite.

  His world changed abruptly that day. He felt a new purpose. He felt alive.

  "I'm going to need to return with money to buy more. How much are they?"

  "Four dollars, each. Or a credit? I guess."

  "No, I think you misunderstand. When I asked how much they are, I was asking for the price for all of them."

  The two men gave each other a look.

  "Do you have one of those cards? I'll trade it for that," the closer one said.

  A bulk order in the form of a trade for a card? That, Bagel could do, and best of all, it satisfied his pride. He was a proper business owner again, and he had gotten his treat.

  When Bagel left the shop, he was surprised to see a bunch of people still milling around like it was just an ordinary day. Across the street, he could see a shop, and it looked like everyone was more busy paying attention to the Pizza Rats and anything else that was appearing. Penny Lane, the coffee shop, looked just right to him. It was warm, open, and inviting. Everyone that wasn't fighting seemed to be enjoying a warm drink out of a branded paper cup.

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  That suited him just fine. He didn't need everyone's attention, at least not all the time…

  He was having issues with how all the humans all of a sudden were able to talk to him, and what it meant to be a cat. Suffice to say, he was as far from his home as he had ever wanted to be. The delicious smell of those treats made him so happy that he had gone far outside of his comfort zone.

  It gave him the resolve to never again leave his comfort zone—except in certain instances. He turned away from the coffee shop.

  Bagel waited at the traffic light, looking for any cars coming down either Second Avenue or Forty-Fifth Street.

  From what all the humans told him, the streets were intersecting, and there was only one direction that each one of these two roads could go. This meant that if Second Avenue was not letting people go downtown, then Forty-Fifth Street was letting people go midtown.

  It just so happened to be that his corner was the one that directly were both one-ways.

  Thinking back to what the workers who had minded the store before he had gotten his powers had said, the amount of humans at that exact moment still boggled his mind. Didn't they have families to go back to? Especially if the System was spawning monsters randomly all over the city. Perhaps they didn't spawn inside of apartment buildings.

  He didn't know. Seeing no traffic, Bagel spurred his mount along. They crossed the street and were at his door in record time. It might have only taken about twenty seconds to get from one side of the street to the other, but to him it felt like an eternity.

  "Can you write?" Bagel asked his mount.

  "I can write. Do you want me to write something somewhere?"

  "I feel like I should make a sign saying that we are still open. I don't think marking my territory will attract humans like it does female cats."

  "That would be a good idea, boss," the worker said.

  There was no one inside of the shop, save for the worker that he hadn't gotten rid of. He poked his head in.

  Being inside of his Bodega again felt like a warm pat on the head. He was ready for things to start happening.

  "Did we sell anything while I was gone?" Bagel said.

  "No, not really," the worker behind the counter said.

  His tail swished. "That's a shame. I have this restock card that I want to use, but I'm not sure what it's going to do."

  "If I might give you some information?" the worker said.

  "Go ahead/"

  "You should restock items that probably are not going to get delivered anymore."

  "When you say I'm not going to get deliveries anymore, what are you talking about?"

  "Every so often, the store needs to get a delivery from our supplier. It seems like the supply chain might be a little bit disrupted due to everything going on. But if you can use restock once a day, then you can keep the fridges going. And if we can somehow get people to pay in cash or credits, then we can start working on getting more money."

  "Okay, and why do we want money again, exactly? Besides buying tasty treats. And I can just trade cards for them," Bagel said.

  "Money is the thing that lets you buy other things."

  "So none of this stuff is free?" Bagel was skeptical. Surely, the person who owned the store would eventually show up. But what if they got a deck of cards and they wanted to go on an adventure? Would someone stop him from buying the store? Come to think of it, hadn't he gotten a card that let him run the store?

  "Hey, worker guy," he said. "What can you tell me about the store? I got all these cards about running a store, and I have a card like you to work it, but what is this card here?"

  He pulled out his deck. By tipping his paw to his chest and then turning it upside down, he was able to display an image of his cards. He enlarged the image to show the detail to his captive audience. He hadn't even known that he could do that, his new-found instincts taking over.

  ---

  Bodega

  Persistent

  This card may be used as a persistent base and will work with water and electric hook ups. The owner can buy adjacent plots unless owned. The owner makes a cut of all profits made off the top; adjustable rate is set by the user. The store interface adapts to the user.

  He pulled out a Pizza Rat card.

  “We can come to an arrangement,” Bagel said, purring. “We’ll buy this card, and in exchange, we’ll give you a discount if we have a set of ten. How’s one hundred dollars?”

  The shop AI shot a laser short range, making a projection of the offered amount. Bagel had to physically restrain himself from chasing it.

  “That’s fair.”

  “Pay the man, mount.”

  The worker opened the cash box and took out some twenties. He counted it, then handed it to the doorman. The doorman then counted the change as well.

  “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

  The doorman lingered there. “I’ll be back.”

  The store was quiet for a minute after he left. Bagel surveyed his domain.

  “Can you do the thing with the laser again?”