Chapter 866: Another Bug?
Old Song walked into the lobby, glancing around.
"So this is Thunder Interactive Entertainment's new headquarters? Classy."
"Emm, this place is plenty spacious, and the zoning is quite unique—refined."
"Whoa, they even have a themed restaurant and all these rest areas? Comfortable."
The more Old Song wandered, the happier he became, showering the new headquarters with praise, almost forgetting why he had come in the first place.
This highbrow man in his thirties had become a die-hard fan of Chen Mo starting with *Uncharted*, and in private, he had already praised *Uncharted* to the skies.
Originally, Old Song had scoffed at domestic games, deeming them unworthy of his time. But after experiencing *Uncharted*, he was captivated by the historical knowledge and lofty sophistication in the game, and later even bought the *Uncharted* collection.
He had also purchased *Assassin's Creed: Origins*, having just finished it not long ago.
After all, as a successful business elite, his time was squeezed by work, reading, watching movies, and other activities, so Old Song didn't have much gaming time to begin with.
Moreover, *Assassin's Creed: Origins* was an open world, and Old Song often played in fits and starts, not getting as addicted as he had with *Uncharted*.
But that didn't stop Old Song from loving *Assassin's Creed*.
In Old Song's view, *Assassin's Creed* was even more to his taste than *Uncharted*. After all, *Uncharted* was about cultural relics and modern people chasing ancient treasures, while *Assassin's Creed* was about truly traveling back in time, experiencing exotic customs and that tumultuous history.
So, when the trial for *Assassin's Creed: Revelations* opened, Old Song decided to personally visit Thunder Interactive Entertainment's new headquarters to give it a try.
After all, the game was quite pricey, and Old Song was worried about getting ripped off.
As Old Song was wandering around, he saw a long-haired man in his forties, wearing a white top, walking toward him.
Along the way, two other players greeted the middle-aged man: "Good morning, Master!"
Old Song was a bit puzzled. Master?
Truth be told, this guy, despite his receding hairline, exuded a high level of sophistication, and Old Song was well aware of that.
Just like with *Assassin's Creed: Origins*, Old Song first entered the Animus developed by Abstergo.
Since Old Song had already played *Assassin's Creed: Origins*, the Thunder Game Pass had the corresponding data, and it directly read the info and started loading.
But the loading screen was a bit strange.
The field of view couldn't move, and there were two arcs at the top and bottom, looking like the edges of some machine.
In the very center of the view, there was a faint image, and the entire scene was a bluish-gray, reminiscent of a black-and-white TV, with a strong sense of history.
Scenes flashed and disappeared, and Old Song seemed to see many ancient architectural scenes, but he couldn't make them out clearly.
Accompanied by a somewhat harsh static noise, Old Song found himself already in the game.
Looking down, he saw he was wearing a white assassin's robe, with a hidden blade strapped to his left hand, which was missing its ring finger.
He could look around, but he couldn't move.
But when Old Song glanced around, he realized something was off.
There were many people walking around, coming and going, but...
These people had no faces!
Yes, their faces were all blank slates, like flesh-colored plastic mannequins, each in different poses.
But this scene was also a bit creepy.
"What's going on? Another bug? Hmm, why did I say 'another'?"
Old Song was puzzled.
Back in *Assassin's Creed: Origins*, Chen Mo seemed to have "deliberately" created some bugs. Of course, according to the official explanation, these were synchronization issues with the Animus, not program errors in the game itself.
But having a bug right at the start of the game was a bit much, wasn't it?
And the bug wasn't just that the NPCs had no faces. Even Old Song's field of view, or rather the entire world around him, was in an extremely unstable state, constantly flashing with red light, and the surrounding buildings flickered in and out of data rifts.
A murky, static-filled voice echoed in Old Song's ears.
"I applied my mind to study wisdom, madness, and folly, and I learned that this too is futile."
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow."
"The more knowledge, the more grief."
Old Song was still pondering these philosophical words when his vision turned into a vast whiteness, and aside from static, there was no other sound in his ears.
A moment later, the game screen reappeared, but it was still chaotic.
A female voice said, "There's a problem. I can't locate his memory; there are too many logical inconsistencies. He keeps resisting..."
Old Song found he could move. He tried running and jumping, but the environment around him only grew worse, the static louder, and everything more blurred...
Some pop-up boxes appeared in his view, prompting him on basic operations like jumping, climbing, and attacking.
But the surroundings made it hard for him to concentrate.
Male voice: "Desmond, I hope you can try to relax."
Female voice: "Let me try to stabilize his condition."
Male voice: "Focus, listen carefully. Everything you see now isn't real—just images from the past. They can't hurt you."
Female voice: "Damn, it's not working. We're losing his signal! We need to pull him out, now!"
Male voice: "Alright, Desmond. We're bringing you out now..."
The view went white again, and the loading screen with the Abstergo logo reappeared.
But this time, when Old Song's vision returned, he actually saw... the ceiling of a modern building.