Chapter 454: This Ezio is Way Too Unserious! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 454: This Ezio is Way Too Unserious! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Lying on the Animus, Song Ren heard a sound similar to electric current in his ears, and the next moment, his vision turned black.

A stream of data-like symbols appeared before his eyes.

He was no stranger to this—it was clearly the world of the Animus.

Then, accompanied by a cutscene, Song Ren found himself in a place resembling a laboratory.

A young man in a white shirt rose from the Animus.

At a glance, Song Ren recognized him—this was Desmond, the protagonist from the first promotional video of Assassin's Creed featuring the Animus.

‘My name is Desmond Miles. I am a prisoner in this war...’

Soon after, Desmond’s inner monologue echoed in Song Ren’s ears, giving him a basic understanding of Desmond’s background.

This Desmond was born into an Assassin family, but he always believed that the whole Assassin and Templar Knight conflict was just a fictional tale made up by his parents’ generation. Unable to bear it any longer, he left his family and moved to New York, hiding his identity to live an ordinary life as a bartender.

However, when applying for a motorcycle license, he registered his real personal information, which led the Templar Knights to discover his Assassin lineage. He was immediately kidnapped and forced to use the Animus to relive the memories of his ancestors, searching for the whereabouts of the Pieces of Eden.

Of course, these details were learned by Desmond from a previous ancestor he had experienced—Altaïr, a master Assassin.

It turned out that the conflict between the Templars and the Assassins had already stretched across thousands of years, continuing to the present.

Now, the Templars’ influence had infiltrated politics, economy, culture, and every other aspect of society.

Likewise, the Assassins had been continuously resisting the Templars.

Lying on the Animus, Song Ren experienced the sensation of being reborn as a newborn infant, followed by a short escape sequence guided by Lucy.

It wasn’t long, and Desmond was in an Invincible state with no health bar.

Compared to the original version, Chen Xu had slightly enhanced this segment, making it more coherent with the story.

After all, while the main purpose was merely to introduce players to the Contemporary Era timeline and serve as a tutorial teaching basic actions like attacking and running,

the original storyline made Desmond and Lucy’s escape far too easy.

It couldn’t even be called an escape—they basically punched and kicked their way out, and even let Desmond show off his Eagle Vision.

So Chen Xu adjusted the modern timeline, making this escape sequence slightly more realistic.

After a few seconds of black screen inside a trunk, Song Ren, alongside Lucy, arrived at a new base and once again lay down on the machine under the arrangements of Lucy and others.

Now, his task was to trace the memories of his ancestors through the genes in his blood.

By leveraging the Bleeding Effect, he could rapidly master Assassin techniques and locate the Pieces of Eden before the Templars did.

‘Finally, it’s beginning!’ Watching Desmond lie on the Animus, Song Ren felt extremely excited.

Although he had been controlling the character during the modern timeline’s story, the gameplay experience was clearly different from what he had imagined.

Lying on the chair, as a needle-like device inserted into his arm, the screen before Song Ren began to blur, then dissolved into countless shreds of lighting and shadows.

Around him, data fragments continuously reassembled, forming buildings one by one.

Meanwhile, the camera slowly pulled upward.

His perspective shifted to a God’s-eye view.

As the structures emerged, countless data streams shaped into human figures.

Then, as more data rendered, the entire world began to operate gradually.

‘Screech!’ A cry of an eagle echoed from the sky.

Soon, only faint traces of data remained in the sky, while pedestrians standing still in the alleys began to move and chat—just like a fully functioning, living world.

The Renaissance-era Florence, along with its various unique structures, came into Song Ren’s view.

As the streets filled with more and more people, a subtitle appeared in Song Ren’s vision:

‘Florence: 1476 AD’

Finally, the camera focused on a young man delivering a speech in Italian.

‘We stand united!’

‘Quiet, my friends, quiet!’

‘Thank you.’

‘Do you know why we are gathered here tonight?’

‘Honor! Vieri has insulted my family’s reputation and brought misfortune upon us. If I…’

The young man was delivering a passionate speech to a group of strongmen, but he was soon interrupted.

‘Stop your nonsense! Fool!’

From the other end of the street, another young man, clearly furious, approached with a group of followers.

‘Good evening, Vieri! We were just talking about you!’

‘Seeing you here surprises me. I thought the Pazzi family only hired others to do their dirty work.’

The speaker sneered at the other.

‘Whenever you face trouble, your family always calls the guards. Cowards! Can’t handle things yourselves?’ Vieri shot back.

‘Your sister seemed quite satisfied with the “handling” I gave her before!’ The young speaker grinned playfully.

This was Ezio from the promotional video.

This was the Assassin Master?

Why did he seem like an old lecherous man, a total rogue!?

Listening to Ezio’s words, Song Ren felt utterly bewildering.

If there was one character in the game he had been most looking forward to, it was Ezio.

After all, he had looked so cool in the promotional trailers.

But now, right at the start of the game, this Ezio was acting like a rogue—a lecherous one at that!

The contrast was just too stark.

Where was the emotionless white-robed Assassin? How did he turn into this old lecherous thug?

After Vieri threw a stone that struck Ezio’s forehead, a standard tutorial level began, teaching the player in detail about combat mechanics.

Compared to the combat system of Assassin's Creed from Song Ren’s previous life,

Chen Xu had enriched this part significantly.

For example, adding parrying and blocking, rolling, grappling, and the kill streak system introduced later in Brotherhood.

The combat elements in the game were quite rich—blocking, counterattack, combo chains based on attack frequency.

Especially the execution animations following a successful counterattack, which felt incredibly cool to Song Ren.

But what Song Ren liked the most was grabbing an enemy and delivering a crotch-shot with his knee.

The fight wasn’t particularly difficult.

The only thing that made him slightly anxious was that he still didn’t understand the game’s difficulty level.

After all, games under Nebula Games usually didn’t have difficulty settings, and were generally quite punishing.

There were exceptions, of course—like the previously released Red Dead Redemption.

But Assassin's Creed seemed to have substantial Action Elements.

Still, even though Song Ren was a bit nervous, he had to play it anyway.

The earlier events didn’t carry special meaning—they mainly served to establish Ezio’s interpersonal and background relationships.

What surprised Song Ren was the upcoming parkour race with his brother Federico.

Unlike The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where you could climb mountains freely, climbing in Assassin's Creed leaned more toward Uncharted.

Walls and buildings had specifically designed points of force application for climbing.

However, compared to Uncharted, climbing in Assassin's Creed was much smoother—like parkour, allowing continuous movement without stopping, as long as the path forward was properly planned.

Running through the alleys of Florence, scaling rooftops, and finally reaching the top of the Cathedral, Ezio stood beside his brother, overlooking the city.

At this moment, the background audio titled ‘Ezio's Family’ began playing, and under the moonlight, the Assassin's Creed Logo appeared in Song Ren’s vision.

The beautiful melody in his ears, combined with the moonlit Florence before his eyes, made Song Ren lose himself in the moment.

Of course, this enchantment was quickly shattered by the conversation between Ezio and his brother that followed.

When his brother asked about going home, Ezio cast his gaze toward a nearby house.

Immediately, his brother knew exactly what his younger sibling was thinking.

‘Ezio! Let Cristina have a good night’s sleep!’

‘There’ll be plenty of time for her to sleep later.’

Song Ren: ???????

Who has an Assassin like this!?

Was this really the white-robed Assassin from the promotional trailer, who looked unbelievably cool?

This Ezio was way too unserious!

Well, maybe it’s a good thing—since he’s so unserious, Mr. Chen probably won’t deliver any emotional gut punches in the story.

Although the theme of Templars versus Assassins seemed heavy and somber, it was only a theme after all.

Thinking of Ezio’s brother and the yet-unseen Cristina, Song Ren in the game couldn’t help but smile—feeling that same lighthearted, joyful vibe found in Uncharted.

(End of Chapter) <>