Chapter 643: Richer Gameplay

In this bustling metropolis, the streets were forever alive with a ceaseless tide of travelers hailing from every corner of the world.

Consequently, rumors and tidings from the surrounding kingdoms drifted in with the same regularity as the tide.

"What in the world is going on here?" an ordinary mercenary grumbled, his brow furrowed as he watched a contingent of Temple Knights march down the thoroughfare.

"Haven't you heard? The entire Judgment Temple has gone utterly mad, hunting down assassins across the length and breadth of the realm, even worldwide!" another mercenary replied in a hushed whisper. "Heaven knows what kind of heinous, unpardonable sin those assassins committed to make them raise such a massive storm."

"Word has it they humiliated someone over in the Elven lands, though who knows if it's true..." a few mercenaries muttered among themselves, huddled together.

"It might very well be real," another speculated. "No wonder they're making such a fuss. Not long ago, the Duran Workshop was loudly trumpeting that their new mystic realm was going to expand into the Elven nation, but now the whole thing has completely fizzled out."

Clearly, these mercenaries were no fools; from these scattered fragments of information, they could sense the distinct scent of something extraordinary.

"Still, I feel like... it's not that big a deal," a mercenary clad in dark-brown beast-hide armor remarked, glancing warily to his left and right. "They wouldn't dare act too recklessly here."

"Our Morning Light Empire is a sovereign nation of public trust with freedom of belief, so naturally, you won't see anything amiss. Why don't you try going to a neighboring country? They are client states devoted to the Judgment Temple, and the entire nation works together to apprehend assassins. In a place like that, there's simply no room for those assassins to hide! I'm telling you, it's rumored they've already captured a massive number of them, and they're planning a... mass execution."

"Not only that, the assassins who previously attempted to assassinate Luther in Grey Eagle City will be executed alongside them."

Just then, a few shadowy figures darted swiftly past the roadside.

They came to a sudden, abrupt halt.

Ha Xin clenched his fists tightly, his shoulders trembling slightly against his will.

"Calm down! They are doing this precisely to lure us into a trap!" another assassin said, pulling him back with a firm grip.

"I know..." Ha Xin replied, his voice hoarse as he let out a low, strangled growl. "But those are our compatriots, our brothers! The Brotherhood, understand?! They should have fought for freedom, not died on the godforsaken gallows of the Temple!"

This middle-aged assassin, who had always kept a low profile and grown up in the slums since childhood, had entirely lost his usual composure.

"We ought to let more of our compatriots know the will of freedom, to know of those grandmaster assassins. I imagine they would love this place just as much as we do!" Ha Xin spoke up. "Playing together, sneaking around together, performing the Leap of Faith together—even if we get caught, it wouldn't matter."

"With the time we have left, we could sip cappuccinos and chat about the future stories of Assassin's Creed." He described the scene in a detached voice, though without him realizing it, the middle-aged man's words became choked with emotion. "I want them to know that we are not lowly, filthy rats. Being an assassin is a noble profession! You know... I had it all planned out, everything was completely planned..."

"They shouldn't be heading to those damn, cursed gallows!"

...

"Huh? Why is this shop closed?" The mercenaries who had been chatting moments ago walked over to an alchemical item shop, only to find its doors firmly shut.

"Isn't this the alchemical item shop of the Merlin Workshop? Why is it closed?" It was obvious this mercenary was a regular customer who frequently bought alchemical goods here. "How could this happen...?"

"Tell me, how does a perfectly decent person like him get mixed up with assassins?" At that moment, several other passersby walked past, pointing and whispering at the shop front.

"That I don't know, but I heard that an assassin supposedly used a sword from the Merlin Alchemy Workshop when assassinating a priest. Word is, that sword actually shattered a priest's divine shield right inside an anti-magic array..."

"The Traitor's Blade?" The Traitor's Blade had once appeared during a rebellion in the Radiant Divine Kingdom; that cursed edge had indeed pierced through a divine barrier within an anti-magic array, which immediately brought this legendary, ominous weapon to everyone's mind.

"It sounds somewhat similar, though obviously, it wasn't as powerful as that legendary sword," another man laughed it off, trying to lighten the mood.

"But I heard the person wasn't caught and has probably fled to another country by now. Now all his shops have been shut down because of this."

"If this were our country, there wouldn't be all this nonsense. Who told him to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Stan? What a shame for such a good shop... Oh well, let's go, let's go."

As a devout nation of the Temple, the Kingdom of Stan naturally granted immense authority to the priesthood.

...

"Boss, is the preview out today?"

"Boss, why isn't it out yet?"

Almost every day, a crowd of elves would gather in the shop, eagerly waiting and looking forward to it.

Not to mention the mercenaries who lived in this city themselves, as well as the knights of the Golden Gryphon Knight Order.

The preview released today was clearly packed with much more substantial content.

In fact, Fang Qi was also watching it, because this preview did not just introduce some game scenes or background lore; those were things Fang Qi knew inside out without even looking.

This preview introduced aspects of gameplay mechanics and controls.

Evidently, Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 had not only increased the level of freedom and open-world exploration on its original foundation, but had also refined and added a great deal of new content.

Take character selection, for instance. As everyone knew, in Legend of Sword and Fairy 1, Li Xiaoyao was the sole protagonist, so players could only choose Xiaoyao to play through the game.

Legend of Sword and Fairy 3 featured two protagonists, Xu Changqing and Jingtian, but it was merely an alternating narrative between Jingtian and Xu Changqing to tell the overall story of the third game.

Yet during Jingtian's storyline, you had no idea what Xu Changqing was doing, nor could you choose Xu Changqing, and vice versa.

But this new Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 System Remake Version was entirely different.

In the preview, everyone saw Murong Ziying practicing his swordplay at Qionghua, along with some of his daily interactions with his junior disciples. This took place before he ever met Yun Tianhe. Players only needed to progress through Tianhe's storyline to a certain point to unlock Murong Ziying's route, allowing them to experience the game entirely from Ziying's perspective.

They could even explore matters that were never mentioned in the original game's Yun Tianhe plotline.

Not only that, the preview also demonstrated similar operational mechanics for Liu Mengli and Han Lingsha, though this feature was restricted to female players.

Another point that differed drastically from the original was that while the original allowed a team of four but only one character could be controlled at a time, the preview showcased an online co-op mode where four players simultaneously controlled Yun Tianhe, Murong Ziying, Liu Mengli, and Han Lingsha.

However, in this co-op mode, the storyline progressed via a trigger system, whereas the single-player mode offered a highly realistic, semi-triggered immersive experience.

This was only natural; if four individuals controlled four characters and roamed off to the four corners of the earth, the storyline of Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 would fall apart completely. Therefore, while granting greater freedom, the game mode had been slightly refined.

In this way, players who loved grouping up to play games with their friends were certainly in for a treat.