"Assassin"?
I've never heard of this game, is it perhaps a small game developed by an overseas company?
As it was almost noon, Ren Suo ordered some takeout, then peed, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and afterward, he lay down on the sofa in the living room to start playing the Mini-World Game Console.
The apartment his uncle had rented to him was fully furnished, equipped with a sound system, a 4K TV, a sofa, and other furniture. Living alone must have been great—if he had a girlfriend, it would have been even better.
So Ren Suo bought his best companion—the Fourth Princess, formally known as the Hell 4th Generation Gaming Console.
After washing his face, Ren Suo was fully awake; only then did he remember that his console and games were purchased separately.
The order on his phone showed that the "Unparalleled Heroic Spirits 8" and "Evil Spirits Curse 2" he bought were still in transit, expected to arrive in another day or two. Even if he had bought the game console, it would be of no use yet.
"Unparalleled Heroic Spirits 8" was a newly released action game where you slash your way through hordes of enemies, while "Evil Spirits Curse 2" was a hardcore action role-playing game. Ren Suo had taken a long time to choose these two, preparing to play them for months nonstop until he achieved platinum status or had to go to work.
Because he bought these two blockbuster games, they practically drained Ren Suo's gaming budget. Therefore, he didn't plan on buying digital versions of games from the Hell Game Platform, since digital games are often more expensive than physical copies. Unless there was a discount or promotion, Ren Suo would not consider it—let alone the 'collectability' and 'resell value' of physical versions.
If he had extra money later, Ren Suo planned to collect the game discs as a radiant part of his history.
If he was short on cash, he could just sell the game discs and recoup some money, this way a game wouldn't cost him much in the end.
For these reasons, Ren Suo opted for physical copies of games with delivery times that are abysmally long.
Without any games, the Hell 4PRO Gaming Console could only sit idle for now, so Ren Suo had no choice but to play "Bald Assassin" on the Mini-World Game Console.
Selecting the "Free Game of the Month," the game description for "Assassin" was listed as an action role-playing game, an immersive assassination game where players could become a modern-day Assassin endowed with "Bullet Time," master of all firearms and combat techniques, and even choose to play as other assassin characters. It looked rather impressive.
After choosing to download, a prompt popped up on the screen:
"Player selection is for a free chapter, this month's "Assassin" free chapter is 'Bloody Banquet,' game difficulty: 1 star."
"As this free chapter's difficulty is 1 star, exclusive rewards are removed (exclusive rewards are available for difficulties >2 stars)."
"The remaining time for this game chapter is 14 hours 23 minutes 51 seconds, after which the game will automatically be deleted."
"What? The free game only lets you play one chapter, and there's less than 15 hours left?" Ren Suo complained, but having seen plenty of free stuff in Mysterious Country, he wasn't too surprised.
However, the game's download speed was astonishingly fast; in less than five seconds, Ren Suo received a prompt indicating the game had successfully downloaded. He lowered his expectations for the game even further—although his apartment had a 200M fiber optic connection from Mysterious Country Telecom, a game that could download completely via WIFI in 5 seconds probably wouldn't be more than 100MB, right?
Even if it was only one chapter, the music, system, graphics, and such would all need to be downloaded. A game with such a small file size could either be terribly truncated or inherently small. Although file size doesn't equate to game quality, it does limit the game's expressive capabilities.
"Looks like it's probably a small game... wait a minute?"
Suddenly, Ren Suo remembered he hadn't connected the Mini-World Game Console to the apartment's WIFI, had he?
It wouldn't be surprising, though, given how the Mini-World Game Console dominated as soon as it arrived, connecting directly to the Hell 4 game controller and Rice TV, it would automatically connect to the apartment's WIFI anyway.
However, once he entered the game, his previously low expectations suddenly rose!
On the screen, rain trickled down from the eaves of buildings on both sides, pitter-pattering on the dirty alley ground. The light from far-off buildings and streetlamps outside the alley served as the only sources of light inside the alley.
In the dim alley that appeared as deep as the Abyss, the figure of a person holding a black umbrella stepped through the puddles, emerging at a leisurely pace into the center of the screen, dressed in a suit, standing tall like a noble in the night rain.
Then, the camera moved forward, shifting the screen's view under the umbrella, allowing players to fully see this person's appearance—
"Please set the Assassin's appearance."
"Damn, this isn't CG, but the actual in-game graphics?" Ren Suo was shocked. Behind the game character, the alley still featured the continuous rain. However, the light and shadow, the rain, the architecture, the textures, the rendering, the character, - even the game touted as 'the peak of performance,' "Record Horizon," might not be a match for it!
"This is definitely not a small game, but a AAA title," Ren Suo said excitedly. He found that the game character's default appearance was that of a fierce-looking bald guy. Upon choosing to change the appearance, a series of options for tweaking popped up, intimidating Ren Suo a bit.
Though he liked to play as cool characters, Ren Suo wasn't particularly interested in the character customization part. Especially now, with highly diversified appearance values, adjusting a face requires tinkering with dozens of parameters. As someone in the advanced stages of laziness, Ren Suo had no intention of wasting too much time on this.
Generally, someone like Ren Suo who likes attractive characters but doesn't want to spend time on them would opt to search online for other people's character customization records. He'd be a freeloader, copying someone else's character data to create a character to his liking, maybe adjusting the eye color, hairstyle, and hair color. Then, that would be Ren Suo's game character!
But when Ren Suo searched for "Assassin," there were games with similar themes and names online, none of which had the graphics quality of the game in front of him, nor any game that allowed for face tweaks. Therefore, Ren Suo's path to being a freeloader was nonexistent.
Luckily, in the appearance menu, there was a "Recommended Appearance" and a "Recommended Character."
In "Recommended Characters," besides the default 'Bald Assassin,' there was a 'Clown Assassin' and 'Demon Hunter Assassin,' and beyond that, "For more options, please purchase character DLC"...
After careful consideration, Ren Suo found that these assassin characters, aside from their appearance and voice, actually had different skills that would impact them.
For example, the 'Bald Assassin's skill was "Bullet Time," which affected the flow of time around himself;
The "Clown Assassin" with tear makeup skill is "Thousand Changes," which requires 30 Merit Points to unlock;
The "Demon Hunter Assassin" with white hair and a face full of vicissitudes has the skill "Abyssal Wolf Swordsmanship," which requires 30 Merit Points to unlock;
Even their starting proficiencies are different, the "Bald Assassin" seems to start with the skills "Martial Arts Mastery" and "Firearms Mastery," the "Clown Assassin" has "Firearms Basics" and "Throwing Expert," while the "Demon Hunter Assassin" only has "Swordsmanship Master."
Among the three "recommended characters," the "Bald Assassin" is recommended for newcomers and is also the only free one.
Ren Suo had not found how to recharge money up until now, and what's more, he wouldn't spend money on a game that would automatically delete itself after 14 hours, so he could only choose the "Bald Assassin."
Of course, he would not use this appearance, so he chose a Mysterious Country man's appearance with sword-shaped eyebrows and starry eyes from the "recommended appearances," and added a red drop-shaped mark at the center of the forehead, making it look sinisterly charming.
"Please name the assassin." After confirming the character, the game popped up a prompt.
Ren Suo directly named it "Assassin," then the screen changed, and the controller vibrated slightly; this assassin holding an umbrella slightly smiled, and he could control this character now.
At that moment, a drunken drifter appeared in front of the assassin, walking towards him through murky rainwater, raising a bottle as if wanting to hit someone.
Through the process of stepping out of the alley and subduing the drifter, Ren Suo basically understood the game's controls, and after knocking the drifter out with combat techniques, the game popped up a prompt: "Before 8 p.m., find a way to enter the Black Thorn Building's 8th-floor Ranpelrouge banquet under a legitimate identity."
The perspective moved upwards, and on the screen, a grand and bright building outside the alley appeared with a green inverted pyramid mark, indicating that this is the destination the player needs to reach.
Ren Suo controlled the assassin to walk out of the alley and saw that the street outside the building was packed with sports cars and luxury cars, while waiters greeted arriving guests under umbrellas.
Approaching closer, he noticed that those aristocratic-looking upper-class people would always take out an invitation before entering. After the waiter confirmed the invitation, they could enter, and the service was very attentive, the waiters kept their eyes firmly on the guests until they got on the elevator.
For instance, Ren Suo saw a young man in clothes splashed with muddy water, who parked his car far away. As he presented his invitation at the entrance, a waiter immediately said, "Mr. Ricall, there's spare formal attire and a dryer upstairs, I'll take you there now."
"Thank you."
The waiter's service was really thorough, escorting the young man all the way to the elevator and informing the service staff inside the elevator of the young man's needs, with at least three pairs of waiters' eyes watching the whole process, making it clear that sneaking in was impossible.
Ren Suo directly controlled the assassin to attempt to enter the building, and naturally, he was stopped by a waiter. The waiter spoke a few words in English, and his avatar popped up with a dialogue box: "Sir, please present your invitation."
At that moment, four options appeared at the bottom of the screen, each selectable with the directional keys, but there was only 10 seconds to choose, and if there was no selection, the first option would be chosen by default.
① "I forgot my invitation at home."
② "I am the person in charge of the company upstairs, I need to get documents by taking the elevator."
③ (Attack him) "Why should I report my actions to you?"
④ (Take out 5 pounds) "Cousin, long time no see..."
There are free choices too? Ren Suo was no stranger to this mode, as choices like these typically determine how the player will overcome the game. Based on Ren Suo's years of experience watching game videos, he believed that ① is probably a do-nothing option, choosing it would basically be useless; ② could be a verbal dodge to get through; ③ is definitely a forceful passage option; ④ is a bribery option.
He tentatively chose the seemingly no-cost option ② "I am the person in charge of the company upstairs, I need to get documents by taking the elevator."
Waiter: "Oh? But passage has been prohibited before 6 p.m. today, please come back tomorrow."
Ren Suo: "Why not?"
Waiter: "Because this building belongs to the Ranpelrouge Family."
Ren Suo: "..."
The first attempt to enter was a failure, then Ren Suo continued to try other options.
However, the waiter frowned at that moment, "What are you doing here again? Security, take him to cool off next door."
Two nearly 2-meter tall, burly security guards in blue uniforms came over and flanked the assassin. Ren Suo thought this meant mission failure, but the screen continued until the assassin was taken to an alley.
"Don't cause trouble, kid." The security guard patted the assassin's head and left. Ren Suo instinctively pressed the controller, and then the assassin automatically choked the guard's neck and twisted it with a snap.
Ren Suo was stunned, but the other security guard didn't get stunned. He immediately pressed his ear and shouted, "Hostile target detected, location is Palan Alley. Terry has been killed, requesting backup, requesting backup!"
He pulled out a baton and pointed it at the assassin, stepping back towards the alley exit while loudly reporting the assassin's misdeed to his superiors.
Ren Suo just watched this security guard leaving the alley, and the screen showed the, now dead, security guard's body emitting a faint yellow glow. He controlled the assassin to check it out and found that the body had three options: Loot, Drag, Dispose.
Looting allowed stripping the security guard's clothing and equipment for own use; Dragging meant moving the body; but when Ren Suo chose 'Dispose,' the game prompted, "You do not have any tools to dispose of it."
At this moment, out of nowhere, a dozen gunmen in black appeared and started blasting away at the assassin. As blood splattered on the assassin's body, the game screen turned to black and white.
"You are dead."