Volume 4 Chapter 47: Cosplay
Cosplay is a kind of entertainment where real people wear clothes from anime-style characters and act as those characters.
Usually, the characters come from games, anime, or manga. For less popular ones, they might come from special-effect TV shows, or even novels.
But no matter how you look at it…
Cosplaying your own character feels a bit strange, right?
After putting on the blonde catgirl outfit, the little devil happily jumped around for a while. Then she ran to Lin Lin’s side, swaying left and right with a big smile.
“So? Sister Lin Lin? Do I look like her? Do I?”
“You do… you really do…”
Lin Lin touched her chin and looked at the “blonde catgirl” in front of her with a slightly awkward expression.
Honestly, there really is a gap between 2D and real life.
Even though this custom-made cosplay outfit tried very hard to copy all the details of the blonde catgirl, and Gao Ye’s appearance does match the typical anime heroine type, she still does not actually look that much like the original character.
For Lin Lin, who is used to seeing the virtual version, something just felt a little off.
Well… but it was still cute in a different way.
It did not have the same proud, tsundere catgirl feeling as the original. Instead, it showed more of Gao Ye’s natural “little devil little-sister” personality.
“Ah~ hehe, I think it’s pretty cute too~ Wearing a cosplay outfit of my own virtual character feels so unreal… but it also makes me really excited!”
As she spoke, Gao Ye turned around again and kept looking at herself in the full-length mirror in the lounge.
At that moment, Du Wenmei also came out from the changing room. Lin Lin turned to look, and as expected—
“Miss Princess Hydrogen has changed from a loud and funny big sister into a gentle married lady with glasses.”
Lin Lin twitched her mouth as she made that comment.
Du Wenmei blushed a little and waved her hands.
“I’m not even old enough to get married yet… Um… but wearing this does feel a bit strange. It feels like clothes meant for someone younger than me.”
“You look like a young girl, hehe. Sister Wenmei is cute~”
Lin Lin shook her head.
So far, neither of them had truly captured the “spirit” of their virtual characters. That made Lin Lin sigh inside.
See? I told you. Cosplaying yourself doesn’t really work that well.
How can a real-life girl easily show the special feeling of a 2D character?
Well, to be fair, most cosplay fans do not care that much about perfect accuracy anyway. Everyone just does it for fun.
Unless the person naturally matches the character very well.
But for someone like Lin Lin, who got her virtual appearance from the system instead of designing it from the start, that is almost impossible.
However…
Seeing how happy Gao Ye and Sister Wenmei looked, Lin Lin suddenly felt a little tempted.
It was… actually very cute.
“Can we wear the cosplay outfits while streaming in the live room later? Can we? Can we?”
After playing around for a while, Gao Ye looked at Du Wenmei with hopeful eyes.
Wenmei scratched her head awkwardly and waved her hand.
“That might be difficult. It would feel very immersive, and maybe it would be a great experience… but we still have to wear motion capture equipment later. This cosplay outfit probably won’t work well with all that gear, haha.”
Du Wenmei explained it like that. It made sense, but Gao Ye still felt a bit disappointed. Such a great experience, if she could only wear the outfit in the backstage for a short time, that would be too boring.
“Just behave~ The most important thing is the performance later~”
Lin Lin also tried to comfort Gao Ye.
After hearing that, Gao Ye puffed her cheeks and sat back down beside her. Then she gave a mischievous smile and pointed at the costume bag that had been sitting in front of Lin Lin the whole time.
“Sister Lin Lin~ Isn’t there another cosplay outfit here? Why don’t you take it out and try it on?”
“Uh…”
Lin Lin froze for a moment. She did not expect Gao Ye to suddenly push her into this situation. It took her a few seconds to react.
She picked up the bag with some difficulty, looked at it from left to right, but refused to open it, as if she was firmly resisting.
Du Wenmei could not help laughing quietly at the side.
“Oh come on, stop hesitating! Just open it and take a look!”
Gao Ye lost her patience. She grabbed the bag from Lin Lin’s hands and quickly tore it open, revealing the Little Vampire’s costume inside.
Lin Lin gasped as if she had been hit by an ice arrow.
Help… this Gao Ye…
Gao Ye happily took everything out one by one. Silver wig, red contact lenses, a slightly charming and a bit sexy black silk dress, a big red flower, small wings, hair accessories… and more.
Everything was prepared.
Lin Lin swallowed nervously.
Wow… Sister Wenmei really prepared everything carefully.
“Oh~ So it’s the Little Vampire’s cosplay outfit~ Look, both Sister Wenmei and I already cosplayed our own characters. Don’t you think you should try yours too~ hehe~”
Gao Ye held the outfit and kept waving it in front of Lin Lin.
Lin Lin panicked. She closed her eyes and shook her head hard while holding it.
“No no no no, don’t! Wearing this kind of clothes… I—I—I still can’t accept it!”
“Sister Lin Lin!”
Gao Ye suddenly grabbed Lin Lin’s shoulders, turned her around to face her, and spoke seriously.
“I think that since we already chose to stream using our virtual characters, we should accept them. They are another version of ourselves. What is there that we can’t accept?”
“Uh… b-but… my Little Vampire character is so dramatic and embarrassing. It feels so cringe…”
“Hmph. Think about it this way, at least it’s not a succubus!”
Lin Lin was stunned by that answer.
After a moment, she started thinking seriously… and slowly felt that…
It kind of made sense.
Wait… that’s actually true. At least the Little Vampire drinks blood.
Ahhh no no no! That’s not the point! The embarrassing part is cosplaying yourself!
“Sister Lin Lin~” Gao Ye continued her “brainwashing” patiently. “Don’t you want to see what you look like wearing the Little Vampire’s outfit? Today is a rare chance~ Don’t you want to experience the fun of cosplaying your own character in real life?”
F-fun…
Lin Lin’s heart started to beat faster.
Oh… oh no…