Chapter 837: Leap of Faith
As the mission continued, Lin Mu roughly studied the other systems in *Assassin's Creed: Origins*.
The UI on the scene was similar to other VR games, kept very simple, with only a few basic graphics used to mark mission locations, the positions of special items after tracking, and so on.
Upon entering the system interface, one arrived in the Animus space, where they could check mission records, equipment, abilities, inventory, and other content.
Opening the map revealed that the map in *Assassin's Creed: Origins* was enormous, clearly an open world, though most areas were still locked. From the map, the Siwa Oasis, where the player currently was and which seemed quite sizable, only occupied a very small area.
The weapon system had similarities to *Dark Souls* but also differences. Different weapons had different damage values, special effects, and skills, allowing players to choose based on their preferences.
Players could upgrade chest armor and other equipment by collecting resources, gaining certain attribute boosts.
In terms of abilities, *Assassin's Creed: Origins* had a fairly extensive skill tree. Players could freely develop in three directions, enhancing combat skills, archery, or assassination abilities. Players could choose their development path based on their preferences, granting Bayek more powerful abilities, such as the berserker-style "Battle Continuation" or the hunter-style "Double Shot."
Additionally, there was a gameplay feature that Lin Mu found incredibly impressive: the True Eagle Vision.
When Bayek approached a target location, he could call his eagle, Senu, to confirm the target's position from the air. In this situation, the player's view would also shift to Senu's perspective, allowing them to overlook the entire area from above and mark things of interest, such as enemies, items, supplies, and so on.
After marking, Bayek could search based on the marked locations, saving a lot of time.
While searching for leather, Lin Mu controlled Bayek to delve deeper into the Siwa Oasis, only then realizing how realistic this town was.
This realism came not just from the graphical fidelity but from the accumulation of countless details.
Lin Mu had played *Uncharted* before, and he had experienced this sense of realism in that Madagascar town market. However, that scene was a modern setting, where much of the content could be directly sourced from reality, including vendors, chefs, wall painters, monkeys, and so on—all those intricate details creating a realistic scene.
In *Assassin's Creed: Origins*, Chen Mo needed to recreate ancient Egypt. Although Lin Mu had researched the costumes, architecture, culture, and other materials, actually integrating all this data to build a complex and realistic scene was exponentially more difficult.
But now that Lin Mu was actually in the game experiencing it, he found that *Assassin's Creed: Origins* had perfectly accomplished the task of constructing a virtual town.
In the building clusters of the Siwa Oasis, countless residents and vendors each had their own dwellings and were engaged in their own activities.
In other words, the NPCs had a very complete ecosystem.
Some people carried goods on their heads, walking from one end of Siwa to the other to deliver them.
Beside a shop, two middle-aged women were chatting about their daily lives.
In the market, a street vendor was enthusiastically hawking his wares.
Children played with mud in a corner.
Pedestrians strolled around, and some who recognized Bayek would greet him.
Villagers driving oxcarts loaded with straw entered from outside the city, their destination unknown.
Lin Mu, with a twitchy hand, slashed at an innocent bystander who was watching. The system immediately prompted: "A protector should protect the innocent." If he kept slashing at pedestrians or cats, he might even directly desynchronize. (The system had already explained this when entering the Animus.)
After clearing out an enemy outpost, Lin Mu discovered an available synchronization point nearby.
After climbing to a cliff, Lin Mu controlled Bayek to reach the synchronization point. The interface then prompted: "Synchronization available."
Lin Mu felt a bit weak in the knees. He looked down and saw that the ground was at least several dozen meters below, but he still followed the system prompt to synchronize.
The camera quickly pulled up, circling around Bayek, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery. From this high vantage point, one could clearly see the distant rolling sand dunes, the vast Siwa Oasis, the lush forests, the tops of buildings... All the scenery of the surrounding area was laid out before his eyes.
"So... beautiful!" Lin Mu couldn't help but exclaim. This long shot perfectly captured the beauty of Egypt, and such vantage points were scattered all over the map.
[Synchronization complete.]
[Fast travel unlocked.]
[Leap of Faith available forward.]
"Leap of Faith?!"
Lin Mu was completely dumbfounded. What the hell was this?
Just standing at the vantage point already made his legs weak, and now he had to jump down?
Even though he knew it was just a game, the surrounding scenery and details were so realistic, combined with the highly immersive first-person perspective, that Lin Mu felt his real-life legs trembling and his palms sweating profusely.
But if he didn't jump, would he have to climb all the way back down the same way? That would take too much time.
If the system allowed this so-called "Leap of Faith," then jumping down should be safe. The only issue was courage.
Lin Mu was still hesitating.
Just then, the system prompt added an option: "Perform Leap of Faith in third-person view."
"Third person?... Well, that seems much friendlier." Lin Mu chose the latter without hesitation.
This time, the camera moved to behind and above Bayek. Without Lin Mu needing to control it, Bayek leaped forward on his own!
"Screech!!"
An eagle's cry.
Bayek spread his arms and leaped forward!
Lin Mu's perspective followed Bayek as he plummeted rapidly. The scenery on either side whizzed past upward, and the howling wind echoed around Lin Mu, as if he were truly falling from a great height!
Fortunately, it was a third-person perspective. Bayek's perfect and graceful movements made Lin Mu feel much more at ease, even giving him the illusion that some feeling within him was being elevated by this jump!
The imagined hard landing didn't happen. Bayek fell back-first into a cart of straw, and the next second, he climbed out nonchalantly, perfectly fine.
"This... is another setting that needs to hold down Newton's coffin lid!"
Lin Mu had thought this jump would either leave a crater in the ground like in *Prototype* or result in a "You Died" like in *Dark Souls*. But clearly, this so-called "Leap of Faith" was part of the game's design, and this straw pile... probably existed at every vantage point.
Lin Mu looked back at the place he had jumped from. That cliffside vantage point was indeed very high. In reality, would anyone dare to jump from there?
"So... that's why this move is called the Leap of Faith? Only those full of faith dare to jump? Or... those with weak faith all die after jumping?!"