Potato then said, “Ye’zi, you play Dota so well. You must’ve heard of Coold and Wu’er. These are the two greatest goddesses in the Dota world and I heard they’ll be present this time.”
There was a slight change in Ye Lingchen’s expression. He remembered Song Qian telling him about letting the hosts participate in commercial activities, of which a comic convention was one such activity. At the same time, it could increase the popularity of both the host and the platform, as it was disadvantageous to do everything behind closed doors and disregard the outside world.
Game characters were naturally considered as two-dimensional, so there was no shortage of game exhibits in an anime convention.
In fact, he had never seen them in real life before, so there was no reason not to go and have a look at them and see their true colors.
The livestream industry had just emerged in recent years, though it gradually returned to normalcy after the initial hype. During that period, it was inevitable that countless laughingstocks would appear. The most controversial topic was none other than a female host’s true appearance.
A livestream’s beautifying qualities were so powerful that it could turn 80% of the women in the world into beauties. Many online relationships end the instant they met offline.
Not long ago, a female host named Moe-Loli Queen was revealed to be a horrifying-looking grandma, after a technical issue during a game caused her cartoon avatar—which was originally set to her face—to disappear all of a sudden!
The scene of a Lolita turning into a grandmother was just terrifying and the entire livestream became instantly quiet.
However, the grandmother still had no idea what happened. She scratched her head claiming that she was ‘the world’s most beautiful loli’ who wants her big brothers to hug her and lift her up high.
Mr. Penetrative, the top rewarder in the livestream, was so scared that he even canceled his account, quit overnight, and bought a plane ticket.
In that way, the true appearance of many hosts had been pushed to the forefront. The public even brought up God Y and said that he did not dare to show up because of his ugly appearance, which might even be that of a grandfather.
Ye Lingchen scoffed at that kind of remark. ‘Hehe, innocent mortals. I’m worried that I’ll blind you with my handsomeness if I show up!’
Coold and Wu’er were recognized as the two great goddesses in the DOTA world and he had no idea how their true appearance compared to the live broadcast despite chatting with them from time to time.
When Ye Lingchen thought of that, he could not help but nod and reply with a smile, “Sounds good. Count me in!”
“YES!” Xiang pumped his fist excitedly. “You definitely won’t regret it. I heard that Coold and Wu’er are really beautiful and even look more eye-catching than in a live broadcast.”
…
The anime convention building looked similar to that of a gymnasium, but it was much more awesome when compared to the latter. Moreover, Ye Lingchen only realized the hype of the anime convention when he was near the anime convention building.
The plaza before the convention was crowded with all kinds of people, mostly women. Most of them wore clothes completely different from ordinary people and some even held weapons. One out of five people were cosplaying.
It had to be acknowledged that the dresses of two-dimensional characters were still very attractive, causing Potato’s group to ogle and gawk. They could only wish that they could grow a few more eyes.
“Look, is that Mai Shiranui? Those clothes are just too revealing.”
“Please swallow your saliva before talking. Don’t spray it all over my face.”
“Ah f*ck. Is that The White Maiden?[1] So divine.”
“Monster, Fahai is here. Isn’t she going to show her true appearance soon?”
“Damn, that woman is so flirty. Is that a real snake in her hair or just jewelry?”
“Hey, fairy, come and eat my stick![2]”
“That little girl is so dedicated. She even dyed her hair blue. Still, she’s really cute.”
“F*ck off you pervert lolicon!”
…
There was constant discussion in the plaza and everyone’s restlessness could clearly be sensed. The atmosphere was extremely lively.
Ye Lingchen had never paid much attention to anime conventions, but the door to a new world had instantly been opened to him and he felt as though he really entered a two-dimensional realm.
All that happened outside of the anime convention. It would only be even livelier if they actually entered into the convention.
“Oh f*ck. There are plenty of people. How long will we have to line up?” The five boys were instantly dumbfounded when they arrived at the ticket booth.
The line was as long as a dragon and anyone would find it disheartening to line up if they glanced at it, as it would practically make their heads go numb.
Ye Lingchen stood there indifferently and looked on with interest at the various groups of people.
He noticed that aside from normal people, there were also lolitas with cat ears and cat tails, Zhu Bajie wearing a pig’s head and holding a rake, as well as beautiful fairies that sported veils.
Such attire might attract the attention of many people on the street, but it was a very common sight there.
“What are we going to do? If we do line up, it’ll already be dark even if we’re able to buy tickets.”
“This is crazy. There’s so many people in the university town!”
“Look at me!”
Hao Jian smiled mysteriously and led the way as he walked toward a crowd that clearly had few people. There was a big VIP logo on that window.
“Please present your premium membership card.” The ticket seller was a young lady with a soft voice.
“Hey there, beautiful. Us brothers live in a remote mountain village. It’s been really difficult to walk through mountains and rivers just to come here and experience the sights…”
“No membership card?” the young lady interrupted Hao Jian immediately, then said with a friendly smile. “Please wait in the next line.”
“Come one, just think about it. We can add to the money. We’ll double it.”
“It’s useless for you to add in anything when you’re facing an honest and ethical person like me! Please wait in the next line!” The young lady stood firm.
Hao Jian’s face froze, then he gritted his teeth and took out an autographed Ye Lingchen card as if he had made a major decision. “If you give us the tickets, I… Will give this to you!”
The young lady’s eyes lit up suddenly. She blurted out without thinking and asked, “How many tickets do you want?”
…
“F*ck, so awesome! Now I know what to do.”
After Hao Jian got the tickets, Little Gen and the others stared at Hao Jian in shock. Even Ye Lingchen was surprised that his signature would be of such use.
The layout of the anime convention was no doubt designed according to the anime backgrounds. It only took a couple of steps from them to encounter a cosplayer posing in the classic pose of the anime characters, thereby allowing everyone to take pictures and gasp in awe.
In addition to the characters, many people set up stalls there, selling weapons and equipment from anime, posters, figures, and the likes. Some even sold their own selfies, wearing various anime clothes. They gave everyone the impression of being very coquettish, but were revealing certain body parts.
Of course, that was only the scene they saw after just entering the anime convention. The situation inside was even more chaotic…
[1] 白娘子is translated to The White Maiden, which is a name for Bai Suzhen (白素贞), the main character of Legend of the White Snake (or sometimes translated to Madame White Snake). In the subsequent paragraph, we see someone referring to Fahai (法海), the antagonist from the same movie, who goes to extreme lengths to stop spirits from causing harm in the mortal realm, even to the extent of hurting innocent ones, like Bai Suzhen.
[2] 吃俺老孙一棒 – here is translated literally as ‘eat my stick’, which we can interpret as having a sexual connotation to it. However, the actual term is used by Sun Wukong (孙悟空) in Journey to the West (西游记), who says it when he wants to hit someone with his stick (i.e. his weapon). Sun Wukong’s usage of this phrase can be roughly interpreted as ‘come here and get a whooping
