Chapter 44: I Just Came to a Comic Convention, Why Am I Suddenly on Stage?

A cosplayer dressed as Jinx walked past, and the crowded crowd accidentally knocked the bomb cart she was holding out of her hands.
It rolled to Bai Ling’s feet.

She stared at this little orange cutie, suddenly wishing it would really explode, preferably blowing her back to the login screen of “Xuanhuang Ji.”

Because that way, she wouldn’t have to face the host sister’s passionate “Please welcome the next cosplayer to the stage!” on the stage.

Yes, that damn photographer had really entered the competition with her and Gu Xiyan’s photos, and as expected, they had made it out of the auditions and into the top sixteen.

It was too late to withdraw now.

It was almost her and Gu Xiyan’s turn.
What should she do?! Go on stage and pose provocatively?!

‘There’s a washing machine! I’ll just crawl into it!’

Eh?

The girl watched in stunned silence as the washing machine actually grew two legs, stood up, and walked away…

‘Has the washing machine become a demon?’

‘No, why would someone cosplay a drum washing machine at a comic convention! Is it necessary to be so extreme with the meme?’

“Look over there!”
Gu Xiyan’s claws suddenly poked the girl’s waist.

The girl followed Gu Xiyan’s finger and saw a two-meter-long Q-version white snake pillow hanging on the wall.
It looked like it would be very comfortable to hug.

Actually, the girl had always felt that her bed was too empty and lacked a sense of security.
Last night, she and Xu Zhi had caught a lot of dolls at the arcade, costing Xu Zhi several hundred.

Now, those dolls were all over the girl’s bed.
She really felt much more at ease when she slept at night.

“You get it for participating in the competition~”
Gu Xiyan whispered in the girl’s ear, her warm breath brushing past her earlobe, like the devil’s whisper.

The girl suddenly felt that the group of crooked-mouthed Psyducks that Xu Zhi had caught on her dormitory bed really needed a proper guardian snake.

“Aren’t the otaku dances of this group of cosplayer sisters beautiful?”
The host sister was energetically shouting at the few audience members below the stage.
The crystal clear sweat beads on the tip of her nose were sparkling.

This comic convention had been held in Lin’an for many years, but every time, they couldn’t invite any important guests, which led to the stage performance never being able to arouse the audience’s interest.

Compared to watching those unknown cosplayers sing and dance on the stage, everyone seemed to prefer to wander around their favorite stalls and take pictures with people.

If this continued, there would be no stage performance next year…

The host sister was a little sad.
As one of the people in charge, she definitely didn’t want the stage performance project she was in charge of to be cut.

But if the next contestants were still of this level, there would definitely be no stage performance next year.

The audience below the stage applauded sparsely.
This kind of applause was more out of politeness than praise.

“But this next pair is a heavyweight!”
She suddenly changed the topic, and the stage speakers trembled from her voice.

“This group of contestants is cosplaying characters from the recently famous ‘Xuanhuang Ji.’ To be honest, I’ve played this game too.
The dungeons are too difficult, right?”

A forced burst of laughter came from below the stage.
Although the dungeons of “Xuanhuang Ji” were indeed a bit difficult, it wasn’t to the point of being too difficult.

After all, a game was just a commodity.
It had to take into account the acceptance level of the audience.
If the difficulty was too high, it would only turn away most of the players, which was contrary to the manufacturer’s original intention of making money.

In other words, this host was either a bad player or a cloud player.

The stage spotlight suddenly swept across the backstage, making the fluorescent powder on the girl’s scale armor shine like starlight.

“What are you standing there for? It’s time to go on stage!”
Gu Xiyan poked the girl’s waist with her elbow.

“But I can’t dance…”
The girl had just been struggling with whether to participate in the competition to get the white snake pillow prize.
But when she came back to her senses, she had already been pulled to the backstage by Gu Xiyan.

Watching the several little sisters who were cosplaying as gacha game characters walk past her one by one, the girl couldn’t help but feel a little sad.

These few little sisters had just finished dancing their otaku dance.
There was still a thin layer of sweat on their collarbones, which was crystal clear under the stage lights.

What should she do when she went on stage later? The girl didn’t know how to dance an otaku dance or anything.
Was she just going to stand there like a wooden stake?

“Close your eyes! Just treat it as running a dungeon!”
Gu Xiyan pushed the girl onto a skateboard without taking no for an answer.

“But this is reality!”

“Shut up! I’ll count to three, two, one, and you strike your ultimate move pose!”

“Three… one!”

“What about two?!”

Before the girl could finish, she was pushed out from behind the curtain.
Her sharkskin cloak brushed against the thick fog created by the dry ice.
In the sky of artificial snowflakes, she instinctively made the opening gesture of “Frosty Sky” from the game and slid to the center of the stage.
The fluorescent powder on her sword tassel sprinkled out a silver river of light with her movement.

The fog covered the skateboard, making the girl look like she was a fairy floating in.

This was actually a very old special effects method.
The 86th edition of “Journey to the West” was filmed this way.
Those actors who were floating in the celestial atmosphere of the Heavenly Court were actually on skateboards.

“Bang!”

A plastic water cup suddenly fell to the ground outside the audience seats.
An uncle with a “Xuanhuang Ji” planning team work card suddenly turned his head.
The reflection on his glasses showed the girl’s subconscious pose—”Frosty Sky,” which was the level 50 ultimate move of the snake demon swordswoman.

He didn’t even care about the coffee that had been spilled all over the ground.
He hurriedly took out his phone with trembling hands and started filming.

“I’ve found the best candidate!”

This uncle, who had just happened to pass by, was so excited that the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK-47.

When the girl had slid to the center of the stage, Gu Xiyan suddenly jumped out from the upper left.
The silver-painted plastic dagger actually glinted with a cold light under the stage lights.

“Holy crap, is this wire-fu?”
The group friends were chattering in the audience seats.
The several rows of plastic chairs were sparsely seated with a pitifully small number of audience members.

Gu Xiyan’s figure, as she jumped out from the stage, looked like the heroes from martial arts movies flying over eaves and walls.

“The organizers of this comic convention are going all out? They even have wires?”
The boy with glasses immediately raised his phone.
He had a feeling that the next performance would be very exciting.

Seeing the sudden attack from Gu Xiyan, the girl subconsciously spun and raised her sword.
The fluorescent sticker on the prop sword swung out a star trail with her movement.

“Clang!”

The moment the prop dagger and the sword blade collided, the sound engineer fumbled to press the pre-prepared metal sound effect.

“I’ve struck gold!”

The accuracy of this “Frosty Sky” move made the uncle from the “Xuanhuang Ji” planning team below the stage want to throw away his phone and stand up to applaud.

Gu Xiyan used the reaction force to flip backward.
Her whole body was low to the ground, and her fluffy fox tail dragged on the ground like a fox preparing to hunt.

“Mom, I’ve got real martial arts!”
The hand of the boy with glasses holding the gimbal was trembling.
In the camera, the scales on Bai Ling’s sash were rising and falling with her breath, like a real snake demon flicking its tongue.

This moment of brilliant confrontation drew a round of cheers from the audience below the stage.
Many passers-by had stopped to watch at the originally sparse stage.

“These two cosplayers must be martial artists!”
A passing photographer happened to capture the moment of their confrontation.
He immediately called his companions to set up a tripod.
“I don’t know where the organizers invited these two beautiful girls from.
They even know kung fu!”

“As long as we take good pictures, it’s all traffic!”

The two girls on the stage struck a pose, as if they had entered some kind of probing stage.

“This is Qing Lin-sama! Don’t you guys know Qing Lin!”
The fat man’s fat face suddenly appeared in the camera, holding a “Marry me, Qing Lin-sama” light stick like a madman.

“Get out of the way! You’re blocking my shot!”
The photographer used all his strength to pull this 200-jin child out of the camera.

He was now only focused on taking good pictures of the two beautiful girls’ swordplay on the stage.
As for Qing Lin-sama, what Qing Lin…

Wait a minute?

Qing Lin?

The photographer suddenly took out his phone and opened a certain manga app that children couldn’t see.

“The Qing Lin you’re talking about, is it her?”
He pointed to a doujinshi cover.
The long, black, straight-haired girl on the cover had an alluring figure, and her expression of feigned resistance was irresistible.

“Yes, yes, yes! That’s her!”
The fat man nodded hurriedly.
This was Qing Lin’s first popular doujinshi.
At that time, it had topped the charts for several days and was very good to fap to.

The photographer was stunned.
Who would have thought?

The famous artist in the circle, Qing Lin, was actually a beautiful girl?!

She was beautiful, could fight, and could draw doujinshi…

Isn’t this the perfect girlfriend that only appears in anime?

“Limited edition badge with an autograph!”
The fat man took out an itasha bag from somewhere.
The Q-version Qing Lin self-portrait on the badge was winking.
“Scan the code to join the fan club and get a big poster~”

“One!”

“200 each, thank you for your patronage!”

The photographer immediately took out his phone and scanned the code to pay.