"It was a lot of land to get in once but I need as many credits as possible. It's important that we contain the squirrels."

  "So it is true that you're trying to go around them. What do you think is going to happen here?" Ashley said.

  "We're going to go fence them in. They want Central Park? They can have Central Park. But everything around it. I'm just going to buy up everything in a square around Central Park. They're not going to know what hit them because I'm going to cover them on three sides and they won't be able to make it all the way down to South Central Park. And if we have to then we'll ask the pigeons to cover east to west."

  "You're going to block them in?"

  "There's nothing in our agreement that prevents us from doing this. And it's clear that knows what they're doing. They're asking people for protection money so..."

  It was a simple idea. If they could stop the bully then they could make it work. The squirrels weren't moving outward in a uniform direction and neither could they without a large infusion of credits. Bagel didn't know how much they were making from their protection racket but it wasn't going to compare to the power of the state.

  "You got to be shitting me. There's a gang of squirrels that were all awakened with deck Builder powers that are now shaking down people for protection payments?"

  "I wouldn't have believed it either but that's what's happening. And if we can just figure out a way to get ahead of the curve then we just need to make sure they don't get any more warehouse cards."

  That was the issue. At some point in time he was going to start selling warehouse cards and then anybody and could buy them. He needed to make sure that if they were inside of his sphere controller outside. Because if they were outside and they had money they could do an end run around him but it would be very costly. If he could get from river to river? Then whoever got something will be part of his little land plot.

  "Have you been selling any of those?" Ashley said. I thought they went for the city?"

  Bagel blanched. Didn't know what to say to her. She'd been the one that had worked with police. She to get so many warehouse cars. The problem with the cards was that you had to have a lot of money to buy up land. That was why the city had set up an agency to do just so.

  All I would take would be for one squirrel to have enough money to start establishing on the other side of his territory. But still Carl they would have to spend that money. They would have to have a second deck bearer dedicated to that task.

  "Have you talked to the pigeons yet about this? I don't think that they're going to be neutral." Ashley gave him a quizzical look.

  "We're going to have a meeting with them tonight again. As much as I don't like working with them? I'm so glad that we can work together against the squirrels."

  " Well all I need to know is what you need my help for. If you need help? Let me know. I'm going to deliver you some tens of thousands of credits and I assume this city wants to do certain things with it. So you might want to make sure that..."

  "I'm going to stop you right there," Bagel said. "This is what the shareholders want."

  Ashley narrowed her eyes. " And you're assuming this because the only people that showed up to your meetings are going to give you the carte blanche to do whatever you want your the fun so long as you meet the city's requirements."

  "And the city is only requirement is that I keep buying up land."

  "Clever cat. We might just make our way out of this anyway."

  ---

  "This has got to be the weirdest resupply mission ever," Todd said, his voice clear and clean over their connection. One of the minor wins of the systems arrival has brought up was that 5G actually worked in the city for once.

  "Just keep looking for the birds. Okay that's all I need you to do. And when you see some you got to point them out. It's not that we're going to shoot them. We just need to know what they're doing."

  It was pretty easy to see what was going on. So long as Todd paid attention he would be the spotter that they needed. His unique position being on a different Island meant that he was able to tell them what was happening even when the drones weren't able to be in the sky.

  Todd had the other problem of having to take care of the copious amount of mobs that were showing up. Ashley just needed him to do a little bit of side work.

  "Ashley, it's like you're telling me that if I have time to lean I have time to clean. But I appreciate you. I will hit you up if I see anything and if I do I will try to also loop Khaleesi in."

  "All right. Keep doing great things."

  Todd hung up. It wasn't the first time that Ashley looked at her phone. Oddly. How many people had just forgotten to use their phones when the system came in? It was like they'd forgotten and then remembered and it had all come crashing back all of a sudden.

  Ashley, trying to look at Khaleesi's monitor. They were doing a loop around Central Park. Ace was flying in formation with Khaleesi and they were trying to get as much as possible from the images they were getting.

  They flew over places where several mobs were fighting with local guild members or adventurers.

  "Why do they let these mobs last for so long? Don't they know that they can do some damage if they hang around?" Ace said.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "It's almost like they're doing a different farming technique than we are. I can respect the urge to do their own thing, but this just seems like they're doing things backwards," Khaleesi said. "Todd's good with our special lookout mission?"

  Ashley nodded. "He wants the drones but you know he understands how things are up here."

  "If he wants drones then he can buy his own drones. The guild is going to help him out eventually right?" Ace said. "And then if he wants drones he's going to have to have drone pilots."

  "I suppose we don't have any extra drone pilots right?" Ashley was absolutely certain of the answer but sometimes she just wanted to hear it somebody else.

  "No and even if we did we should keep them all here in one spot. There's something that happens when you accumulate a lot of talent in one spot. That makes it easier. And plus they can work remotely from here. Or from home if we just install more machines wherever they're going. It doesn't take a lot."

  Ashley had never considered the ramifications of being a work from home drone pilot. But in that moment she knew that that was exactly the job that she would have taken if it had ever been offered to her if especially if money was good and would let her continue her rapping career.

  "Where's Kate by the way?" Khaleesi said. "Is she good?"

  Ashley rolled her eyes. "She's good. She's got it into her head that she needs to figure out something for this mission against La Noche? It's like some sort of miniature cold war against a local enemy."

  "The local enemy being a rival group of people that are trying to also carve out a spot for themselves to live in after we as a planet conquer what? Eighty five percent of the land?"

  "That's the plan, isn't it? Buy up as much land as we need to to survive what's coming. If we want to survive as a species we got to do that." Ashley took a long breath.

  How long had it been since she thought about that? There had been some stipulations about the system coming to town and what would happen next and how humanity would have to face the unknown. But in a very real way she hadn't wrestled with that. She probably needed to.

  She couldn't go back. There was no back to go to. Grotto would never reopen the way that it was. It might change and return the way it had after the pand now? Things had fallen apart and it was unlucky that they would get back together.

  Humans were resilient but the society that they had all built up over years together? She didn't know if it was going to be the same ever.

  It would be hard to say what things would look like. If someone had grown up with this. She couldn't imagine having children and then having to bring them up?

  Everything about the system coming online just sucked.

  There was nothing else to it. She was having to figure out a way to appease a group of gang banging squirrels. They'd put their best minds on it. In fact, the more people she talk to, the more ideas that they kicked out.

  Why was it that every single person had come up with the idea of offering them peanut butter?

  Perhaps it was the hunger. Nearly every single person that was in the adventurers guild now had lost between 10 and 20 lb since the beginning of the system integration. That wasn't to say that they were hungry. Most people were able to find enough calories to maintain their weight now, but it also affected them that there were really only two stores and they were doing a lot more than they had before.

  Ashley herself found that all of her clothing was loose. It had crept up on her after a while. That combined with the general state of the world, meant that she didn't feel any problem whatsoever spending her credits on brand new leggings and athletic wear designed for dungeon crawls. It also meant that her old clothes kind of draped on her.

  That would be great when it finally got cold. She would have enough layers to wear several of her favorite things on top of her guild garb. It was in essence, the best of both worlds. The dungeon wear kept her warm and she could wear it underneath whatever else she got.

  After while, it was pretty clear that the squirrels weren't going to be making a move at midday. The drones went back into a holding pattern, keeping far up in the sky. If the squirrels were larger or human size it would be far easy to track them.

  "It'll be easier if we can just get like a camera pointed at some sort of base they use but they're all over the place. I'm pretty sure that whatever precinct is in their vicinity they don't care that much about that," Ace said. "But I was never part of the police force and I don't know if my husband's going to tell me what's actually going on over there."

  Ashley pulled out her water bottle. The girls had a way of pulling her away from her admin duties. "It doesn't hurt to ask. I haven't seen him in a while either. If you guys are good I should proceed make sure that the quest board is updated. I am sure that Gladys is going to have some bullshit for us."

  Ace called out as Ashley hit the stairs. "It's not bullshit we're just trying to save Turtle Bay and eventually Manhattan."

  "We can't all save the world like Iraq war veterans. But we can do our part." Ashley descended the stairs, ready for the next bout of people asking for ridiculousness.