When you think about it, it’s a given.
Almost nobody thinks that Lily in Deoen is the same person as Lily in reality.
Someone might be denying it, thinking, “Lily is an ordinary person in reality? No way!” and doing some self-hypnosis, but most people distinguish between the game and reality.
However, regrettably, they are wrong.
“The me in reality and the me in the game are the same.”
Blue hair and sea-like light eyes. And an appearance and figure that are hard to take your eyes off.
While the pretty appearance and figure might somewhat match, in this world, there’s no such thing as a person with ‘blue hair.’
If there is, it’s probably dye or a wig.
“I knew you were hiding something.”
As I arrived at Deoen Stadium, I muttered quietly while facing the throngs of people.
There were quite a few rankers from Deoen or people cosplaying as special NPCs, and the majority were ‘me.’
In pure white saintess robes with blue hair.
Whether they were wearing colored lenses or not, their light eyes were sparkling under the sunlight, and each one was holding either a spear or a hammer.
There were over ten of such people.
“At this rate, no one would notice if we went around without our hats and masks.”
“Well~ If Miss Lily shows up like that, it could be a big deal.”
Yena shook her head and firmly denied it.
Sure, even though most of my body was covered, I’m still catching some of the crowds’ attention.
There’s no way to hide this body unless I draped a cloak over it.
But thankfully, hardly anyone finds my blue hair peeking out from behind my hat strange.
“More importantly, are you okay, Miss Yena?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re looking just the same as always.”
Yena’s custom avatar was based on her reality face.
To be exact, it’s the upper version of reality’s Yena.
Now that she’s all dolled up and pretty, Yena’s appearance is quite similar to Deoen’s Yena.
Yena scratches her head awkwardly.
“Well… I’ve kind of gotten used to it. It’s not like I go out often anyway.”
Hmm.
“I’ve done streaming too, so it feels silly to hide now. Thinking about it makes me wonder why I even tried to hide at all.
“….”
“If I get spotted, I get spotted. If they come, let them come! That’s how I’m thinking.”
“That’s certainly true.”
Once you’ve shown your face to the world, you can’t live normally without a mask.
People are more persistent than you think, and no matter how much you hide, they will eventually find you.
You just have to accept it and live.
“Still, you should be careful. I’m fine, but if something happens to Miss Lily, that wouldn’t be good…”
Yena said that while covering her face with a cool-looking hat.
Then she started humming happily and made her way through the crowd.
As if familiar with the place, Yena effortlessly navigated through the throngs of people.
I quickly scanned the area around me.
It feels odd.
“Is there something you’re looking for?”
“I can’t see Miss Yena.”
“? I’m right here!”
As Yena tilted her head, I shook mine.
“I can’t see your cosplay.”
It should definitely be here.
Why is it missing?
“…Ah? Ah-ha. It must be here. There’s no way I wouldn’t be.”
With that, Yena sounded confident but a bit anxious.
Definitely, with the crowd here, there’s a lot of cosplay too.
The most numerous are first me, followed by the stars of the finals, Choco and Baekseol.
After them, there’s some trouble, but still popular are the Sword Saint and Michael, the leader of the Angel Guild.
Then comes the Starry Swordmaster, Aisha, and Luna, the Spirit-user wielding a spear.
Leo is quite popular, but due to the character trait of being a ‘Young Child,’ it’s a bit awkward to cosplay him, so there are fewer of those.
The problem is that Yena’s cosplay count is even lower than Leo’s.
“There must be one. There always has been. Me.”
“I can’t see it.”
“…There must be one.”
Yena’s expression changes seriously.
She also quickly digs through the crowd searching for herself.
But it’s still hard to find.
“There must be… there’s no way I’m not here…”
Ignoring the mumblings coming from beside me, I walked a bit towards where the most cosplays gathered.
It seems like a team is running it, as various types of cosplays are clustered in one place.
There’s even a Boss Monster.
Kwahaha!!
‘…That’s Sugarado.’
A roaring, snowy hatchling.
Whether it mimicked the cries of Sugarado or not, the sound coming from the speaker felt intensely overwhelming, but thanks to Sre’s cute face, people were instead delighted.
Come to think of it, it has been quite a while since Sre fell asleep.
Sleeping is nice, but soon enough, even if she doesn’t want to, she’ll have to wake up.
“I found it!”
Yena’s shout pierced my ears.
In an instant, the crowd around us turned their gaze, but it was so noisy that it didn’t draw too much attention.
As the eyes settled a bit, Yena, with her hat pulled low over her face, cleared her throat.
“Clehem. There, I found it. Look! I told you I was here, right?”
“Where?”
“Over there~”
At the edge of the cosplay team.
In a spot away from the crowd of cameras, a woman with a black ponytail and red eyes was standing.
A woman clad in the revealing outfit of an assassin twirled a green dagger effortlessly.
Though their faces didn’t resemble each other, it seemed quite similar to Yena’s outfit in Deoen.
Yena’s eyes lit up.
“See? There’s no way I wouldn’t be here.”
“Right. How famous are you, Miss Yena?”
“…Are you making fun of me?”
“Of course not.”
For someone like Yena, famous would be an understatement.
It’s just that I’m constantly compared to others on various communities and sites, but having 40 to 50 thousand average viewers and 3 million subscribers isn’t something to brush off.
With a pretty face, skills, and a knack for conversation, Yena stands out even among Deoen’s numerous rankers.
Yena moves her steps joyfully.
“I can’t do it! I’ll just greet them and come back!”
“Pardon?”
“Lady Lily, please stay here for a moment. If it’s discovered that I’m with you, they might get suspicious.”
You can feel free to look around nearby~
After saying that, Yena quickly approached another Yena.
Left alone, I turned my head towards the cosplay section.
Just in time, I wanted to see something; maybe I’ll take a look around.
“Excuse me.”
Just as I was about to take a step forward, someone called out to me.
…It’s a guy covered from head to toe in Lily merchandise.
I’m wearing a t-shirt with my face on it, and my phone case is adorned with me too.
Even the shoes have my face on them, and there’s probably also something of me on the backpack slung over his shoulder.
The only consolation is that he looks relatively normal.
If he was holding a pillow with my face on it, I’d be freaked out.
Of course, looking normal doesn’t mean he’s good-looking.
‘Just your average guy.’
There’s no way all my fans look like this, right?
“…?”
“Could I possibly take a photo with you?”
The guy asked while holding up his phone like a camera.
…He sees me as someone cosplaying as Lily.
The reason he doesn’t recognize me must be the cap hiding half of my face and the black mask.
It’s already absurd that Lily exists in reality.
“Hmm…”
I suddenly became curious.
What would happen if this guy found out I’m actually Lily?
I was curious, but I wouldn’t follow through on it.
It’s better to leave expectations as expectations because most of the time, the outcomes aren’t good.
“I’m sorry.”
I flinched.
As I lightly lowered my head, the guy’s body trembled as if in a spasm.
His reaction was overly dramatic for a simple rejection.
“Oh, yes! Yes, I’m sorry!”
The guy bolted away as if he were running for his life.
“?”
What was that about?
■
Watching cosplayers, or ‘cosers,’ was quite entertaining.
They didn’t just wear similar outfits; they acted out as if they truly became those characters, using famous lines and techniques.
If done poorly, it could be cringeworthy, but they seemed to have practiced enough not to look awkward.
“Sorry. I tried not to stand out.”
“Well, I didn’t want to stand out.”
“Lady Lily!”
I saw ‘Lily,’ the cosplayer dressed as me, and Yena cosplaying along as they reenacted the ‘iconic scene.’
The iconic scene was from the day I first went to the port with Yena.
It involved dealing with a bunch of lousy sailors and earning the Empire’s ire.
At that moment, I handed Yena a straw hat and told her to get out of there.
Honestly, I feel like that’s when the friction with the Empire really started.
Clap clap clap clap.
Wow!!!
The people around were cheering with joy.
It felt like I was watching a play.
“If people find out the real deal is here, they’ll go wild, right?”
“They won’t just go wild. The stadium might get turned upside down.”
Even the cosplayer Lily was getting people hyped, but what would happen if they realized the Deoen from the story had actually come to life?
Having experienced something similar before, I could imagine it, but reality might be different.
“It might create an even bigger wave.”
Yena fiddled with her phone before looking up at me.
“Let’s head in. They’re ready.”
“Okay.”
Yena and I entered the stadium.
Inside the stadium was incredibly vast.
They say it was built for the DCK, but usually, it’s rented out for other sports events, and when the DCK season comes, they make significant changes.
With seating for tens of thousands and amenities scattered everywhere.
In the center, the connectors were laid out like seats in a shrine, and in the middle of the shrine, there was a trophy shining in the sunlight.
A dazzling trophy that only the winner of this competition could hold.
Since I had already lifted something similar during a mock siege war, it felt particularly nostalgic.
“Let’s take a short break. We can take off our masks here.”
Yena guided me to the VIP area before taking me to an observation deck.
Screech…
A viewpoint accessible only to VIPs.
As I approached the railing overlooking downtown Seoul, I removed my mask and took a moment to enjoy the scenery.
Then I turned to look at Yena.
“I’m excited. I wonder what will unfold.”
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