Chapter 863: New CG
A week after the Thunderbolt Interactive new headquarters opened, players received another exciting piece of good news.
*Assassin's Creed*'s Animus was getting new content!
Players had anticipated an update for *Assassin's Creed*, since the title *Assassin's Creed: Origins* had already hinted at it. If it was about origins, there had to be development, twists, and continuations.
What players hadn't expected was for the new content to arrive so quickly.
For Chen Mo, developing a new IP was relatively troublesome because the entire game's mechanics, gameplay, and other elements had to be completely rebuilt. But developing follow-up content was much simpler. With the script finalized and ample art resources available, follow-up content could just reuse the existing game mechanics, saving a lot of time.
Of course, the new content wasn't playable yet; it was still in the final development stage. What had leaked was just the routine promotional trailer.
Still, even a trailer was enough to get players excited. After all, Thunderbolt Film Studio's main specialty was making CG.
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A figure in a white hood passed through the mist and stepped into the camera's view.
His face was hidden in the shadow of the hood, his eyes cast downward, his expression grim and murderous.
But upon closer inspection, this wasn't an assassin in ancient clothes—it was a modern young man.
The white hood came from a white hooded jacket, and beneath it, white earphones were visible.
He wore dark jeans, his head lowered, as he entered an underground passage.
The lights on either side of the passage flickered, dimming and brightening. But in the next instant, they suddenly transformed into torches on the stone walls of an ancient building.
The light flickered, and the background music's melody gradually grew more intense.
The scene flashed, and the young man in modern clothes turned into an assassin in white robes.
White hood, red trim, brown leather boots, hidden blade, arm guard...
The camera flashed, and the young man changed along with his surroundings, as if modern and ancient times were interwoven. His clothes and the environment around him constantly shifted between the present and the past.
But the young man and the white-robed assassin moved with identical postures and steps.
At the tunnel's exit, two men in black coats with unfriendly expressions watched him. The young man lifted his head slightly, his stubbled lips still expressionless, only the scar on his face drawing attention.
The camera swept past the young man's back. The person on the left was still in modern attire, but when it cut to the right, a Templar in full armor had already drawn his sword and charged forward!
A sharp metallic scrape—the hidden blade snapped out!
The white-robed assassin lightly deflected the strike with his metal arm guard, then precisely slashed the hidden blade across the Templar's throat.
In an instant, two bodies fell to the ground.
The white-robed assassin showed no emotion, retracted his hidden blade, and continued walking forward.
"Squawk!"
An eagle soared across the sky. As the young man emerged from the tunnel, everything around him rapidly transformed.
Under the influence of the Animus program, the surrounding skyscrapers and towering buildings dissolved into streams of data, annihilating and reconstructing. Ancient buildings with Middle Eastern architecture rose from the ground.
The scene shifted to a square in this ancient town.
On the execution platform, Templars were flaunting their power, while cheers erupted from the crowd below.
An eagle landed on a horizontal bar not far away, its black eyes reflecting everything beneath it.
Amid the chaotic cheers, a white figure appeared on the tower opposite.
He stood at the very top of the bell tower, his posture upright.
The hood concealed his expression, but his gaze was already fixed on the Templar on the execution platform.
"Dong!"
The bell rang.
The large bell swung to the left, hiding the white-robed assassin from view. But in the next second, as the bell swung back to the right, the assassin had vanished.
Only a flock of birds, startled by the bell, flapped their wings and took to the air.
That sound... was like the rustling of an assassin's robes as he descended.
"Dong!"
The bell rang again.
The white-robed assassin pushed through the crowded throng, slowly walking toward the execution platform.
"Dong!" "Dong!" "Dong!"...
The bell rang continuously. Though the intervals between chimes were perfectly consistent, the background music's melody grew faster and faster. The assassin's movements became quicker and quicker, until he turned into a blur, darting through the crowd in an instant and arriving in front of the execution platform.
"Whoosh!"
A bolt from the assassin's hand crossbow flew straight toward the throat of the Templar on the left. At the same time, he strode onto the execution platform and leaped high into the air!
Time seemed to freeze in that moment.
"Clang!"
A sharp metallic sound rang out. The white-robed assassin, high above like an eagle spreading its wings, extended the hidden blade from his left wrist.
The Templar, ready to draw his sword to meet the attack.
The fallen bodies.
The panicked crowd.
The crisp bell chime.
In the midst of utter chaos, the white-robed assassin remained unaffected. The hidden blade on his left hand plunged into the Templar's throat in an instant!
"Dong!"
The bell rang, and the dust settled.
Everything around seemed to fall silent. The people below the execution platform were terrified, their expressions frozen on their faces, the screams stuck in their throats never escaping.
The white-robed assassin withdrew his hidden blade and gently brushed his right hand over the Templar's face.
"Rest in peace," he seemed to murmur.
The melody instantly grew tense. Guards swarmed in from all sides, and the assassin shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, racing toward the square's exit.
He effortlessly scaled the rooftops, ran along walls, and cleanly dispatched the guards blocking his path, finally arriving at a tightly shut city gate.
Several guards, swords drawn, cautiously approached him.
But just as the guards thought the assassin was cornered, the gate opened.
"Dong!"
The final bell rang.
A group of white-robed followers of the Assassin Brotherhood entered from the other side of the gate. In the blink of an eye, the assassin's figure had vanished.
The soldiers futilely searched everywhere, but could no longer find the assassin.
Only the eagle remained, soaring above the city.
A moment later, the eagle spotted the assassin.
He had already left the city-state and was heading into the distance.
A wave of data swept through again, and everything around rapidly transformed.
From a prosperous, wealthy city-state to a battlefield splattered with blood.
Countless Templars, wielding spears, charged forward fearlessly. Men fell continuously, only for others to fill their places.
But their enemy...
Was merely...
One man.
Surrounded by the Templars was a figure in dark assassin robes. Judging by the thick beard beneath the hood, he was already past fifty, but he moved like the most terrifying god of death, casually reaping the lives of the Templars.
He was as agile as a cat, calmly dodging the Templars' attacks, then plunging both hidden blades with pinpoint accuracy into each Templar's throat.