3 Chapter 3: Officer Kendrick

Joe had just finished healing Andrew's shoulder, and gave a pat on the back of the mace user. "You did well! You're pretty strong!"

Andrew folded his arms and smirked. "Well, well, those monsters were pretty weak... I suppose."

Meanwhile, Haruki was staring at the deceased NYPD officer in horror, his breath got caught up in his throat. The undead were definitely augmented police officers.

One thing that did not make sense was, how were these officers taking damage as well? This was just Augmented Reality, and the thought of virtual weapons killing officers in real life seemed peculiarly unexpected and out of place. There was no way that a mere augmented oriented game weapon would be able to inflict pain upon the officer, let alone demolish him into such a crippling and deceased state.

From the corner of his brown eyes, Joe noticed Haruki subjugated with shock, his body trembling with a dreadful look in his eyes.

Joe shifted his head towards Haruki and peered at his companion with a puzzled look painted on his face. Haruki's angst evidently shrouded on his face, Joe couldn't help the sense of unease sliding through him.

Almost languidly extending his muscular hand out, as if hesitating for a moment, Joe asked, "Hey, Haruki, what are you so horrified about?"

Joe's concerned tone reached Haruki's ears and brought him back to the cruel, callous reality of this augmented world. In the back of his mind, Haruki did not want to believe, accept, or even consider the scene that had unravelled in front of him was true. However, the lingering doubts only made him panic.

Haruki turned around and shouted, "Joe! Andrew! Stop attacking them! They are not programmed by the Cardinal Factor!"

"What the fuck are you saying, brat?" Andrew spat out with a sullen look on his face. "This is Cardinal Factor... and that bastard Raymond has done something to mess up our sensory organs and make us feel real pain! Don't tell me you're thinking of chickening out at a time like this...?!"

"That's not it...!" Haruki growled through gritted teeth. "These undead we fought just now are actually augmented police officers!"

The abrupt and unexpected statement by Haruki caused Andrew and Joe to widen their eyes in shock.

Joe chuckled nervously. "Haruki... What are you saying? This is Augmented Reality... so how can people from the real world get hurt too? You just witnessed Andrew killing all those undead."

Haruki's eyes landed on Andrew's shoulder. "Earlier when you were hit by that arrow... I remember seeing it turn into something small and metal. Did you notice it, too?"

Andrew cast his eyes downwards and saw a shimmering metal peice on the augmented road below him. "W-Wait... this is..."

Haruki walked towards Andrew and nodded. "Yeah... It's a bullet... Those undead were probably NYPD trying to stop us from running in the city. To them, it looks like we are running randomly in the streets of New York. But for us, it looks like as if we are running in a medieval town."

What Haruki said made sense to a certain degree. When Andrew was hit by the arrow, he felt a different sensation of pain, rather than a piercing of a sharp object, like an arrow, through his shoulder.

With a baffled expression on his face, Andrew said, "What you said just now does make sense... But... how was I able to survive a bullet shot. If this was real life, I would have died in an instant."

Haruki let out a short sigh and answered, "Haven't you noticed? Ever since playing this Augmented Reality game, we have been able to move much faster than our real life counterparts. I feel like something else is at play here..."

"Hey, look, we can think about this later. For now, let's just get out of here. The police station is just around that block over there," Joe informed, pointing over to the yonder. "Although, we should probably go somewhere else. Specifically, we should exit this medieval town, and head to the outskirts."

With everyone nodding in agreement, Joe ran towards a different direction, with Haruki, Andrew, and the rest of the players behind him following suit.

Meanwhile in the Real World

In the eyes of the people in the real world, were a bunch of gamers running through the streets of New York.

Multiple police cars in a traffic stop was currently engulfed with fire with multiple corpses of police officers dotted all over the road. Those were the same police officers who were unintentionally killed by the Cardinal Factor Players.

"Call for backup! We need backup!" a policeman shouted into his transceiver whilst kneeling next to the body of a deceased comrade. Slamming his fist onto the ground in visible frustration, he said bitterly, "Damn it! What the hell happened here?!"

All he knew was that an explosion was suddenly heard in the traffic stop he currently was in. Upon arriving at the scene, the roads were in a blazing mess. Police cars utterly destroyed with flames enveloping them, along with burned corpses of policemen scattered everywhere.

How the hell did this even happen? An explosion of this mass must have been by some sort of bomb...!

With a sense of fear and trepidation, the officer continued to bark orders into his transceiver.

"I see that my game is able to affect the real world as well." a voice suddenly said from behind.

Kendrick looked to his right while still kneeling next to his deceased comrade and stared up at a man wearing a white lab coat. "Sir, please move out of the way---" his words trailed off when he suddenly recognised the person in front of him.

Raymond sighed with exasperation and placed his hands inside his lab coat pockets. "I was worried for a minute that my experiment was going to fail there." as he gazed upon the jarring sight of flames ahead of him.

Kendrick stood up and reached for his gun near his waist. "I know you..."

Raymond's eyes landed on the officer, showing a glint of amusement. With a wry smile, he said, "Of course. Everyone knows me."

Kendrick whipped out his gun and pointed it at the creator of Cardinal Scale with both firm hands. "Get on the fucking ground."

Raymond laughed and casually raised his hands up in the air with such a calm persona, almost as if mocking the officer. "Alright, my hands are up."

Kendrick's eyes were bloodshot. "I said get on the fucking ground, now!"

Raymond stared at the officer with a disinterested look on his face while still having his hands up in the air. "Man, you're no fun. Why am I being arrested, officer?"

"Don't fuck with me! You think the feds haven't realised what you've done?! People from different states of America have been wandering around cities aimlessly. We know you did something to alter their sense of reality!" Kendrick shouted.

Raymond was amused. "Oh? So the feds have been suspecting me from the start..."

"Last warning, get on the fucking ground!" Kendrick seethed with rage.

Raymond slowly put his hands down, his expression darkened. Slowly opening his mouth a bit, he said the words, "Cardinal Factor: Activate!"

Suddenly, the landscape around Kendrick changed. The buildings around him were now augmented, and turned into medieval castles. Skyscrapes were replaced with stone brick watch towers, while other buildings like KFC or food eating outlets turned into classic weapons shops.

Kendrick noticed the sea of changes around him and widened his eyes in shock. "W-What the?!"

Raymond smirked. "System Control: Generate item... Excalibur!"

As soon as he said that, an Excalibur materialised in his hand, much to the officer's dismay. "Welcome to Cardinal Factor, Officer."

Kendrick inadvertently dropped his gun on the ground at the sight of the sudden change in environment, his eyes scanning his surroundings.

In a blur, Raymond pointed his sword towards Kendrick's neck. "So this is what the vice captain of the NYPD amounts to, huh?"

Kendrick noticed the sword near the middle of his neck and began sweating profusely. However, he quickly regained his composure and backed away. "What is this? How are you doing this?"

"System Control: Generate Spell... Ice Shards!" Raymond said, as multiple ice shards circled around his sword. Kendrick staggered a few feet backwards in palpable fear before losing balance and falling down on his butt.

Raymond then twisted his sword sideways, and the giant ice shards shot like a ray of arrows towards the officer, each shard of ice ended up piercing different parts of Kendrick's body, noticeably his limbs and stomach.

Kendrick howled in excruciating pain, as Raymond mocked, "Never felt pain like this in all your years of duty, have you now?"

Blood began seeping out of Kendrick's wounds, as Raymond strode over to the wounded police officer, and raised his sword upwards.

However, before he could deliver the finishing strike, Raymond suddenly heard the sound of sirens approaching him.

Looking to his right, he saw a bunch of police cars heading his way.

Reinforcements...

Raymond sighed and put his hand down, as the sword in his hand broke into a million pieces before falling onto the ground like sprinkles of snow. "System Control: Teleportation... Arizona."

And with that, a blue light circled around Raymond from top to bottom, before the mad scientist faded away.

To be continued...

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