It was a scorching summer day, and the crowds were shoulder-to-shoulder.
Li Bei looked at the endless queues in front of him, and inwardly rejoiced that he was no longer an ordinary person. This kind of external weather could hardly affect him.
Otherwise, with such a thick cosplay outfit on, he would probably be sweating like a dead dog, just like those people on the side of the road.
"Hey, missy, can I add you on WeChat?!"
Due to his outstanding looks and the aura of Lihua herself, although Li Bei was just standing in line, people still came up to him every two minutes asking for his WeChat and photos.
To these people, Li Bei could only say, "Sorry, I'm a guy."
"What the—?" The guy cosplaying as Chainsaw Man was startled, but immediately became more excited. "Even better!"
Li Bei: ?
You've got issues.
"Li Bei, over here, over here!"
Just as Li Bei was getting a headache from encountering a fujoshi, a familiar voice in the distance caught his attention.
He turned his head and saw a guy wearing a white suit and a golden wig, cosplaying as Otto. He was waving frantically at him from the entrance of the venue, it was his friend Gao Ming.
Seeing that the main event had arrived, Li Bei ignored the disappointed gazes around him and walked over quickly, "You're not even waiting in line?"
"We're a participating team; we can go through the express lane." Seeing Li Bei come over, Gao Ming smugly smoothed his golden wig. "How about it? Is daddy handsome?"
"Emmm..." Li Bei looked Gao Ming up and down. Although he was indeed handsome, but...
"Doesn't feel as good as Otto... in terms of looks."
"You're stating the obvious? How can a real-life person be as good-looking as a 2D character?" Gao Ming rolled his eyes, then secretly pointed at the few girls dressed as characters from Honkai Impact 3rd in the venue, "You better not say things like that in front of them later."
"Doesn't feel as good as me... in terms of looks."
"You're pushing it."
At this time, the girls in the distance also noticed the situation here and walked over. The girl cosplaying as Kiana, who was in the lead, walked over: "Xiao Ming, is this the support you called over? She's so pretty!"
"Don't praise him, or his tail will be wagging all the way up to the sky." Gao Ming looked helplessly at the girl. She was Gao Ming's girlfriend, Liu Yue, who was also the president of their school's cosplay club.
"There's nothing I can do, my charm is like a firefly in the night, impossible to hide." Li Bei gracefully smoothed his hair.
Although being this narcissistic wasn't good, who didn't enjoy being praised?
Besides, he had been standing at the front of the beauty rankings since he was born. People's praise was all facts~
"Holy crap, Li Bei?!"
Liu Yue was shocked when she heard the familiar voice. However, she knew Li Bei's habits like Gao Ming did, so she quickly reacted and burst out laughing.
"I didn't expect you to have a talent for crossdressing! Our members originally wanted to see a handsome guy, but it seems like we'll only be seeing a beauty today, hahaha!"
"And you look so much like Lihua, you could be the real deal when you're not talking! With someone as spot-on as you in our group, we're definitely going to place – oh, right, did you look at our script?"
Li Bei nodded: "Don't worry, I memorized it days ago."
This was a lie. Actually, Li Bei had just opened the file on the way there.
But, being half a Valkyrie with Physical Optimization, he could memorize a script of a few dozen pages after only reading it once.
The performance for the show was mostly a section of Honkai Impact 3rd's plot, where Kallen was fighting the Third Herrscher and was about to take Mei away. Kiana and Bronya blocked her. The sight of Kiana standing in front of Mei reminded Kallen of Lihua standing in front of the Immortal Phoenix for her. In the end, she chose to let Mei go.
The 'Lihua' that Li Bei played only had to make a brief cameo in Kallen's memory. The main focus was on the performances of Gao Ming and the other members of the cosplay club.
But to be honest, this plot was completely different from what Li Bei knew.
Especially as the original Lihua, Li Bei was so embarrassed by the scene he wanted to dig a seaside villa with his toes…
"Speaking of which, your script seems very simple. Will the performance be okay?"
"Don't worry, the highlight of our performance isn't the plot, but the looks of our characters and the special effects~" Gao Ming pointed smugly to a large pile of props in the corner of the resting area. "See that pile of stuff? I specially hired a super-skilled prop master. He can use those parts to control the movement of props on stage from backstage, it'll look like the real deal!"
"Oh, is that so? That's really amazing…"
Li Bei said perfunctorily. He saw the Judas among the props. Although it was indeed very exquisite, he could still tell that it was just a fake prop made of plastic and foam.
But there was no way to demand more. After all, if the huge cross was really made of metal, the cosplayer probably wouldn't be able to lift it, let alone use it for a performance.
"Looks like you guys are very well prepared this time?"
"Of course, we're aiming for the global competition – hey?" Gao Ming had just started to puff up his chest, but his phone's ringtone interrupted him. As soon as he answered the phone, his face became serious. "What? Ah, that... but..."
Oh ho, seems like karma's a btch.*
Li Bei raised an eyebrow. With his hearing, he could, of course, hear what the person on the phone was saying.
As expected, after hanging up the phone, Gao Ming's expression drooped: "Um, it seems like the prop master can't make it..."
"Can't make it? What happened?" Hearing this news, Liu Yue immediately got nervous, "If he doesn't come, how are we going to use all those props? We already signed a contract with him, he can't breach it!"
"There's no way, you'll understand after you see the news…"
Gao Ming sighed, then pulled out his phone, searched for something, and pointed at a news headline.
[Urgent! A large-scale natural gas explosion has occurred at Qiqi Crossroads. The source of the danger has not been eliminated. Please do not approach the area!]
"This..." Liu Yue's spirit instantly wilted, "He, he wasn't blown up, was he?"
"No, it seems he was just caught up in the outer edges of the explosion on the way here, and ended up getting his bones fractured after being trampled by the crowd." Gao Ming shook his head helplessly. "He's in the hospital now, so he definitely can't make it."
"What should we do..." Liu Yue squatted down dejectedly, "Then our show is ruined, we've all been preparing for so long..."
"Sigh..."
Gao Ming could only sigh and walk over to Liu Yue, patting her on the shoulder: "It seems like these kinds of things always happen lately, there's no way around it."
"It's either a gas leak collective hallucination, or a natural gas explosion, or ground subsidence, or a mentally ill person swinging a sickle around… What kind of world is this?"
"But it's okay, we can go to the competition in C City next week. We can still make it to the national finals!" As he said that, Gao Ming looked at Li Bei apologetically, "I'm sorry, it looks like you made a wasted trip today. I'll treat you to dinner later."
"Hmm..."
Li Bei didn't speak, only frowned slightly.
He originally wanted to tell the two that he could control those props, since he could figure out their structure with a single glance.
But after just taking a glance around, he felt like it wasn't necessary anymore...