Chapter 835: The Opening
After selecting the *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* module, Lin Mu appeared in a virtual space.
All around him were streams of golden data, pulsating irregularly. This was the Animus’s virtual space, and Lin Mu realized he could move.
He could walk around in the Animus’s virtual space, run, stroll, and look around, but there was nothing here except a bunch of visualized data.
Lin Mu looked down and noticed that his clothes and attire were the same as his virtual avatar from *Seaside Mansion*.
In other words, according to the *Assassin’s Creed* world view, it was as if his virtual character had traveled through the Animus into the game protagonist’s memories.
A moment later, the camera pulled back.
This feeling was similar to an out-of-body experience. Lin Mu watched his virtual avatar stand still as countless data streams swept over it, and the original avatar transformed into a hooded, leather-armored assassin—Bayek.
However, as the camera continued to pull back, Bayek’s figure grew smaller and smaller.
“Kree!”
An eagle’s cry rang out in Lin Mu’s ears. He was startled, realizing that the countless golden data streams around him were dissipating, and a real scene was spreading outward from his position, forming an authentic environment.
**[Siwa Oasis, 49 BCE.]**
A simple line of text established the era of the story.
At this moment, Lin Mu felt as if he were attached to an eagle, soaring high above and looking down.
In a canyon under the scorching sun and swirling yellow sand, a procession of war elephants and soldiers was marching toward a town ahead.
The eagle Lin Mu was attached to swooped down from the sky, landed in Siwa Oasis, and merged with Bayek.
Bayek walked around Siwa Oasis, where Egyptians were working, building structures, and hawking goods...
Bayek greeted the local Egyptian residents one by one, creating a harmonious and joyful scene.
At that moment, the war elephant procession entered the oasis. The young Pharaoh Ptolemy sat atop a war elephant, holding a scepter carved with Anubis, surveying his territory from on high.
Among the crowd, Bayek’s gaze met Ptolemy’s.
But just then, everything around them seemed to go haywire. The golden data streams reappeared, accompanied by fleeting images that rushed in like fragments of memory!
Bayek’s terrified face, the bronze-masked members of the Order of the Ancients, blood and daggers...
A moment later, the screen went black.
Time shifted to a year later.
**[One year later, the Bent Pyramid.]**
At this point, Bayek was bending down to pick up a bronze mask from the ground.
“You’re the protector from Siwa? Aren’t protectors supposed to protect the pharaoh?”
Rudjek the Heron lay on the ground, terrified, staring at the blood-soaked Bayek approaching him.
Bayek gritted his teeth and pulled an arrow lodged in his body.
“I’m not the pharaoh’s protector. Do you see this?”
He pointed the arrowhead at a name tattooed on his right upper arm.
Rudjek: “Of course I can read my own name!”
Bayek gritted his teeth and used the arrowhead to scrape Rudjek’s name off his right arm.
Rudjek crawled backward, fumbling for something: “We’ll find you. We’ll find you while you’re sleeping!”
As he spoke, Rudjek suddenly flung his hand, sending a dagger flying straight at Bayek’s head!
But Bayek instantly raised the mask to block. The dagger pierced through the mask and got stuck.
“Sleeping? I never sleep! I’ll lurk in the shadows and wait. I’ll kill every single one of you—everyone who breathed in Siwa that day!”
Bayek slammed his right hand down, driving the bronze mask with the dagger into Rudjek’s face, piercing his skull instantly!
The scene shifted. Amid the endless yellow sand, Bayek was fighting a towering brute.
This brute was Hepzefa, the bodyguard of the deceased Rudjek. He was clad in heavy armor, wielding a massive hammer, and attacking Bayek furiously.
Hepzefa: “Leaving me here to die after killing my master—that will be your greatest mistake!”
Bayek rolled to the ground and came to the front of the camera. Lin Mu’s perspective instantly merged into Bayek’s body, and the game officially began.
What followed was the typical tutorial section. During the fight with Hepzefa, the player controlled Bayek to perform actions like blocking, attacking, and dodging, familiarizing themselves with the game’s combat system.
“Whoa, this feels a bit like *Dark Souls*?”
“Hmm, not exactly the same. There are big differences. And... it seems a lot easier?”
Lin Mu had played *Dark Souls*, but like most players, he had been discouraged early on. When he first encountered the combat system of *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, Lin Mu was a bit nervous, but once he actually got into it, he found the combat wasn’t that hard.
At least in the initial tutorial level, as long as he operated normally, he could pass.
Moreover, *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* was also built using the Pangu system. The combat feedback and damage systems all featured highly realistic physical effects. The blood splatter and cutting effects when hitting an enemy were very authentic.
There were no specific damage numbers. The damage effect was determined by the VR game pod’s haptic feedback. When hitting an enemy’s vital point, shield, or armor, the hand holding the sword would experience completely different feedback. Combined with factors like the enemy’s blood loss, breathing, and footsteps, the player could roughly gauge the enemy’s current health.
Of course, if some players really needed damage numbers, they could manually enable the display in the settings, but it was off by default to create a more immersive experience.
At the end of the fight, Bayek executed a very stylish finishing move. He leaped high into the air, drove his sword down through the enemy’s head, then pulled it out and, holding it in reverse, slashed the enemy’s throat!
However, because the ground had collapsed during the fight, Bayek fell deep into the ruins with no way out. At that point, the system prompted the use of the Animus Pulse to find clues.
“Animus Pulse? Hmm... that’s just the hint system wrapped in the game’s world view, right? That’s a nice touch,” Lin Mu thought.
In other games, players would get hints when they couldn’t find their way, but in *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, the hint system was integrated into the Animus framework. It was as if the player’s virtual character was using the Animus to experience the memories of an ancient person and could use the Animus to scan for special information in the surroundings. This added another layer of packaging to the game.