They were hungry. Bagel had a solution and he was damn sure going to use it.

  It was going to take some work. "Now I need you to understand that I've sold this thing before and it's something I keep in stock, but I don't really know what it is. I know the word peanut. I know the word butter but putting those together does not make any sense to me."

  "All you need to know is that squirrels will go nuts for this and it's got a nut base. It's not exactly the thing that they want but we're going to give it to him. The other important part is that it has to be chunky, not smooth. Otherwise they're going to be looking at this weird. They want to chew their spread."

  Bagel was not sure how the squirrel is going to spread the peanut butter around on the bread that it was accompanying them on their little jaunt. But who can imagine those tiny little paws bringing out a tiny little knife and spreading peanut butter across a tiny little slice of bread. He would obviously have to figure out a way to make the bread and deliver the bread but that was going to be a long-term thing for him. Like he did live next to a bakery. I think. The Amish market bake their own bread which he was so grateful for.

  He just needed to figure out a way to appease squirrels. The periods would be basically anything. The squirrels would be based with anything but they had a preference. And most of them had lived their entire lives without being able to choose what they were eating. So the fact that they were able to now pick from a roster of human foods was going to change the games substantially.

  Bagel recognize that he had preferences and that he would do a terrible things for some sugary goodness. And he knew that that was going to be the same thing for the squirrels. All you need to do was agree to his demands. If they would agree to his demands then he could not worry about them trying to go around. They didn't have the money but they could get it. And because they successfully beaten back so many of their own mobs, they just were disorganized. It was their organization that he was going to try to fix.

  "And you're sure that there's no Central Park adventures guild, correct?" Bagel said.

  "We're pretty sure. If there is one, they haven't come up on the net yet. But it's not like people live in Central Park. Everyone lives around it."

  Actually I figured a way to get them there that utilized a little scooter. Bagel appreciated that they were not over 100 ft to the air on top of a summoned mob. That could disappear at any time but the little scooter felt well. It wasn't loud. It just felt fast. Like there was nothing between him and any cars that they might have passed. Even though there were no cars. The only cars they saw were parked and had been parked for months.

  And every time they passed a Royal parked cars, Ashley had Janet note down where they were so they could return there and turn those cars into something useful using her forge card.

  They're going at a top speed of what felt like 100 mph. I actually had assured him that it was more like 10. But it still felt like a lot. And he was ready for the squirrels to at the very least be open to his offer. But as they turned up by Columbus circle, he wasn't sure what was actually going to happen.

  He could set up all the systems possible and still fail.

  That felt unacceptable to the max. He needed to figure out a way to get them to do it. And they done everything they could. Or at least it felt like that.

  He hadn't realized how so much of his life was now hinging on the opinions of creatures that he would have otherwise, just figured a way to turn into some sort of entree.

  He had to think that the humans were probably thinking the same thing. That would have been rough.

  Humans didn't even look at pigeons and squirrels like they were food. They weren't even in the area of food. They're more like just pests. And more so the squirrels but pests? Pests could be taken care of. Perhaps it was time for him to think more like a human.

  ---

  There was nothing special about where the squirrels were.

  Honestly, Bagel didn't didn't know why. He wouldn't have looked where he looked. He would have overlooked it and drove him past it and spent the day surfing around but the drones had told them what they need to know about where it was. Then his sense of smell confirmed it.

  A clutch of. trees near the Northwestern corner of Central Park had their attention. It was the spot of interest that was most likely to house the leadership of La Noche. Or at least, they'd be able to find someone to direct them to the right spot.

  Several humans were milling about not obviously heading in any one direction sitting on Park benches next to the walking path. That kept happening. Their eerie stares made him think that they were all summons but they didn't register as such.

  "It's weird how they're just sitting here. You would think that like they might not be here? Making it too obvious? But then again they are humans after all. Weird is just the normal."

  Ashley huffed. "They're quite obviously guards or police officers or whatever the squirrels are paying to do their dirty work. I know what they're going to call them. Probably enforcers. That's the only thing that makes sense."

  They came upon one of the little entrances that lets you get into and out of the park. Big. Didn't see the reason why there was a little wall around the park, but it was a thing that just happened. People built up tiny walls around tiny parks that they made in the middle of their big cities so that people could imagine that they weren't inside of a giant steel cage.

  The whole wall which was only several ft tall for most of the length went the entire North and South of the park with some brakes.

  "Is that a dungeon in the road?" Bagel said.

  Ashley slowed as they approached an intersection. She made a beeline for the aperture of an open dungeon.

  "Why the hell have they left this one unfinished?" She looked back at him, her face flashing confusion.

  He didn't want her to slow down, but she did and then they were there inspecting it.

  There was one thing like Dungeons that always bothered him. He couldn't smell through it. It made sense him that he would be able to smell stuff that was on the other side of it. After all, the air flowed back and forth. But there was some sort of smell barrier. It was the reason why he didn't help with the clowns and their terrible smell. If you'd known, he probably wouldn't have gone that one time and never had to deal with it. Clown meat was a gift they kept giving.

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  "I don't like this. But I don't see any mobs here so..."

  Ashley fully stopped the machine. "Bagel I just realized what time it is."

  Bagel groaned. Of course it was now.

  Meatball popped her head up, shaking off her nap from the spare deluxe cat carrier. It was a testament to how good the cat carriers were at shock absorption that she'd actually able to be asleep at all. She above all had needed rest after her stint in a dungeon.

  "Another dungeon? And you weren't going to tell me that you were going to run it? For shame Bagel. You've got Ashley here by herself with Kate all the way back on the front. Of well if you insist."

  Meatball tensed up as if she was going to jump into the dungeon from where she was. It was at least 10 ft and he knew that she probably couldn't make it with one jump but he could see that happening. She probably had some card that let her buff herself into moving faster.

  "Oh there champ. I don't think we're going to be running any dungeons right now. Remember we're on a mission?"

  "What mission? Oh yeah the La Noche thing. How is that going?" Meatball said.

  Several of the people that were sitting in benches wrestled when she said that. Meatball is not being settled in any way. He was pretty sure that she didn't have a subtle bone in her body. And if she did, he would have lost so many bets.

  "We're not going to charge into a dungeon right now. We're working."

  "But just one lunch in. It'll be quick I promise. Just in and out. Come on. It's just a little adventure. What could it hurt?"

  Bagel did not want to give her the pleasure of an answer. She knew how he felt about doing Dungeons. She might be all gung-ho about it, but he was considerably more conservative in his estimation of his skills.

  "I think I'm going to stick to whatever Bagel says. There's a reason why this dungeon isn't cleared and I'm pretty sure it's because it's either too difficult or it's brand new. If it's brand new it's not really a problem for us. If it's too difficult? Then we're going to need more people. Either way this is not for us. I need you to understand that I really want to help as many people as I can and if we just get these squirrels on our side then that'll do way more than one more dungeon clearing."

  Meatball gave her the most mischievous kitten eyes if you'd seen in a while. If those are directed to him, he would have melted. Thankfully, she had picked a human target this time. Bageland just said how gay and recognized game but he would have appreciated her not using those on him when they'd already discussed how vulnerable cats of a certain age were.

  "Come on Bagel you can't... You've got to help me with this. I need your support," Meatball said.

  "We're here to do a mission. You know how important this is. If this goes well then I'll consider going there and doing this dungeon with you. How about that?"

  "Yay!" Meatball said.

  Bagel had been a little fearful of this mission, but her reaction made him realize that perhaps that wasn't the only thing that he should be afraid of. Her enthusiasm for ridiculousness could barely be contained in most situations.

  He just realized that he basically promised her that they were going to do that.

  That was not what he intended but now, he was going to have to live with his decisions. Bagel would have satisfaction but so would meatball. And the mixture of the two? That would give Ashley a headache.

  He was prepared for so many things in his life.

  "All right. Can I get back to our main mission here? We need to speak to La Noche. And I believe that I just saw our contact," Ashley said.

  Both cats immediately turn to look at wherever she was looking. Bagel scanned all the trees starting from top to bottom. Malpo was nowhere to be found. And he wasn't sure that they would see they squirrel anytime soon. He expected to smell them but...

  The squirrel appeared right in front of them. Bagel held back a gasp. Meatball was not that disciplined.

  "My goodness," she breathed.

  "Hello. We're here representing the adventures guild as well as jellyside layer and the TSA," Ashley said.

  They had chosen HP representative organization's even TSA and jelly side layer. Meatball had chosen to be the jealous had layer representative because Bagel is more affiliated with his investments and the squirrels knew it.

  Bagel quickly introduced meatball and made it clear that she was jelly-side representative.

  "Mr. Bagel. La Noche is so pleased that you've come to negotiate. We did not plan to have you but all of the members of the council are here for other business so if you would all be able to talk to us. We are certain that we can open the talks."

  Bagel nodded. Whatever happened next would echo down through the rest of his dumb choices.

  It didn't take long for them to come into a clearing on top of a small rock. The squirrels hadn't even taken the time to build anything permanent. They didn't have chairs. They all just sat around on various branches talking to each other.

  There was a lot of simplicity in that he could appreciate.

  Melpo their liaison went to introduce them and made sure to spend a little bit extra time on Meatballs position within Jellyside Layer. On the squirrel side several of them had picked names out of mythology. That sounded cool, but a squirrel named Zeus was not the most awesome sounding thing that Bagel could have ever thought of.

  Why would they choose the name of a God when they could choose the name of a food?

  "And now this brings us to the meat of matter. Mr. Bagel. We understand that you are a very important figure in New York City politics right now. In fact, you might rival an elected politician in actual power," Melpo said.

  From Bagels estimation, there hadn't really been a squirrel in charge.

  "I think he must understand that I'm coming this this at this from the view of the transitional services agency. Our entire public charter is to buy up all the land in Manhattan to protect the monster tax. That is all we're doing. To that end, I am trying to create as many save summons as possible as we expand from Turtle Bay. Each time we expand, it costs a lot of credits and you understand that because from what I see, you've purchased at least two plots of land."

  There was a stir and then all of squirrels were quiet.

  "If we don't have that land, what do we have?" It was a grey squirrel who had not spoken up during the entire exchange.

  "Pardon?"

  Bagel searched through his memory. That squirrel heaven named what Apollo?

  "We didn't have anything before the system. We didn't have rights. We were basically an open-air zoo here. None of us could travel outside of the city. So now that we have intelligence and sapience now the humans want to treat us like we're not just animals. It sounds to me like you're just going to be doing their bidding and just denying us the ability to make a plot of land for ourselves."

  Bagel was speechless.

  "We are willing to not purchase up central park. We can figure out the rest block by block. Optimistic estimates puts us at being able to purchase this land here within 3 months. And the more land that we buy up, the less mobs spawn because we removed their spawn areas. There are still dungeon surges."

  And that wasn't going to change much. Not until I could buy up all the land that a dungeon could spawn in.

  "And you think that's enough? You think us having a little spot here where we own it is going to be enough for us?"

  Bagel stiffened. "It's not for me to say who's going to remain after this all shakes out. But you understand that I'm not the one that's going to make the humans acknowledge that we have a right to exist. We all have to work with each other if we want to live."

  The squirrels were quiet for a while. It was almost too long.

  "You want us to work together. That is admirable, given the history of our species. But being safety and now it's more like we are. We are all more like humans than anything else."

  He hadn't really thought about that much. Well, it was true that he was a cat and he remembered his time before as a cat, now he was a cat with a whole new system that let him think about things in such a way that he could not even comprehend before. It even filled in gaps in his knowledge that he should have known from being raised as a human. Why did he need to know so many things about human history. Where was the cat history?

  "I'll acknowledge your point here. We understand and we were are all invested in this together."

  "Very well. I think that we have the beginning of what we need to consider. There was going to be a point at which the city is finally back under control. And then the human's going to think about things that are not direct survival everyday. That is our chance-" Bagel said.

  "No," the squirrel said. "That will be too late. They will not consider us humans. They will consider us some sort of helpers or something. Humanity has a thing about power and taking what's theirs. I suppose that we take what is ours."

  Bagel gulped. Meatball's tail curled into his reassuring him of her intent.