Chapter 93: “It’s Not a Cosplay”

“Wow….”

Si-hyun widened his eyes and opened his mouth in astonishment.

Saying it was “unlike him” would be incorrect.

In fact, this appearance suited him much better—it made him look more like a child than before, which was a good thing.

The only peculiarity was that I wasn’t much different from him.

I stood there, mouth slightly agape, before snapping back to my senses and quickly closing it.

We had arrived early at the stadium, having read online that traffic would be heavy if we arrived right on time for the match.

The plan was to grab a meal and explore the area before the game started.

But—

‘There’s no time for sightseeing.’

The stadium was so overwhelming that even I, who rarely got surprised by anything, found myself speechless.

The venue had a semi-spherical dome structure.

Nestled in the heart of Seoul, the building blended beautifully with its surroundings, creating an impressive sight.

With several towering pine trees around it, the architecture evoked the image of an ancient colosseum where gladiators once clashed.

Whoever designed its location and appearance must have been quite the romantic.

But that wasn’t the only thing that stunned me.

—Abyss Dome Stadium 1

‘Abyss Dome Stadium?’

Abyss was part of the stadium’s name?

That meant this entire building was specifically constructed for Abyss matches.

‘If this is Dome Stadium 1, does that mean there are Dome Stadiums 2 and 3 as well?’

There were more of these dedicated venues?

Just how much had this world evolved?

At first, I had thought Abyss had grown from a small neighborhood shop into a decent franchise supermarket.

But the more I looked, the bigger its scale became.

At this point, it had far surpassed even a large retail chain.

Still, it was a good thing.

Si-hyun, who had never seen a building like this before, was gazing at it in awe, clearly interested.

And though I was bewildered, I couldn’t deny that I felt good about it, too.

The match was set to begin at 5 PM, but it was only a little past 1 PM now.

Si-hyun and I had just finished having lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Since it was my first time in the area, I hadn’t thought about where to eat, but Si-hyun had done his research on local eateries.

Thanks to him, we had a hearty meal.

After that, we considered entering the stadium, but we were told it wasn’t open for admission yet.

So, we decided to look around the surrounding area instead.

“Hey, I know this guy! His name is Jerome, right?”

Si-hyun pointed at an old character with a scar near his eye.

He said he had seen him in one of the videos his uncle edited.

Still, calling him “this guy” and pointing at him like that…

Jerome’s character setting had him well over 60 years old.

The Confucian dragon inside me twitched for a moment, but I decided to let it slide.

After all, it was just a character, and compared to other kids his age, Si-hyun was incredibly well-mannered.

We continued exploring, moving from the stadium entrance to the surrounding block developments.

As expected of a place with “Abyss” in its name, everything in the area was carefully designed to match that theme.

There were displays of various characters from the game—starting with Sir Jerome, the old knight holding a mace and shield, looking exactly as he did in-game.

There were also models of heroes who had once graced the login screen, dragons that had appeared in cinematic trailers, and even a statue of Oh Hong-gyun, the beloved director who had been leading the project since its early days.

Si-hyun tilted his head curiously at the director’s statue, which depicted him giving a thumbs-up.

The funniest part was how every passerby seemed to glance at the statue, just as puzzled as Si-hyun was.

As we kept walking, I finally spotted a familiar figure at the end of the row.

A woman with snow-white hair, pure as freshly fallen snow.

It wasn’t the default Camilla, but the Snowflake Queen Camilla version.

Since it was the most recently released skin, the statue looked noticeably shinier than the others, as if it hadn’t been installed for long.

Originally, her costume featured an outfit with an exposed underbust, but this was replaced with a sweater that covered more fabric.

Since this was a place frequented by children, the decision was understandable, though I still felt a slight sense of disappointment.

Well, whatever. This still looked wintery and pretty in its own way.

“I thought this last time too, but she looks exactly like you, unni.”

Si-hyun nodded, saying she had already learned this from Jae joon.

At first, she had been quite shocked to see how much I resembled the game character.

Even now, she wasn’t completely indifferent—she kept looking back and forth between Camilla and me with a fascinated expression.

Then came the inevitable photo session.

Si-hyun took pictures with every character statue—except for Director Oh Hong-gyun’s.

There was no way she would just pass by Camilla, who was undeniably beautiful.

“This time, unni, you should be in the picture too.”

“Huh? Me?”

The difference this time was that she was dragging me into it.

Honestly, I wasn’t a big fan of taking pictures.

I never looked particularly good in them, so I never felt the need to take any.

More than anything, I had no one to take pictures with or share those memories with.

After ending up in this body, I had found myself looking in the mirror more often and taking pictures when trying on new clothes.

But even then, I had never taken a picture with someone else.

Since I had only been photographing Si-hyun this whole time, her suggestion caught me off guard—but at the same time, I felt slightly tempted.

Well, it was Camilla, after all.

Even if it was just a statue, Camilla was still Camilla.

And it was made with impressively high quality.

Walking past it without taking a photo would feel like a waste.

If I had come here alone, I probably would have taken a picture anyway.

With that thought in mind, I let Si-hyun pull me along with a reluctant “Uh, okay…” and stood next to Camilla.

With Snowflake Queen Camilla in the center, Si-hyun and I stood side by side on either side of her.

“But… who’s going to take the picture?”

“We’ll just ask someone passing by. Hold on a sec.”

With that, Si-hyun grabbed my phone and trotted off, then returned with a well-dressed young man in tow.

The young man had an awkward smile at first but then did a double-take when he saw my face.

After seeing Si-hyun get into position, he quickly raised the phone and started taking pictures.

With the sound of multiple shutter clicks, a few photos were taken.

The exhibition hall was quite crowded, and soon enough, we attracted attention.

“That must be Camilla. Let’s go take a picture too!”

“Wow, she looks like she’s actually cosplaying Camilla. The quality is insane!”

“Oppa, where were you just looking? Be honest. I saw your eyes wandering!”

A man marveled as he studied my face and hair, seemingly mistaking me for a professional cosplayer.

It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption—after all, there were plenty of cosplayers around the event.

And aside from my outfit, I was identical to Camilla in appearance.

Among the crowd, I also noticed a woman staring at me blankly before pinching her boyfriend’s side.

A group of students approached excitedly, their faces lit with curiosity.

Just as I was about to finish up and slip away from the growing attention—

“Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture with us?”

A group of people dressed in elaborate outfits approached me directly.

“We came here dressed as characters from the cinematic trailers… but we didn’t have a Camilla. We were just saying how unfortunate that was.”

“Wow, is your hair actually bleached, not a wig? And your eyes are so big—you look exactly like Camilla!”

They were a group of people cosplaying various heroes from the cinematic trailer.

Behind them stood Lennok, the Black Undertaker, carrying a massive greatsword on his back, Theodora, clad in bright armor, exuding energy, and Dan, an assassin wielding twin daggers.

Each of them was a key character from the same cinematic as Camilla.

Yet, out of all of them, there was no one cosplaying Camilla.

What were the chances?

As if they were all part of a dedicated team, the five of them approached me together.

Their eyes sparkled with excitement as they struck up a conversation.

At that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to say that I wasn’t actually cosplaying.

But at the same time, squeezing into their group for a photo felt a bit overwhelming.

“Ah, I actually came with my little sister, and she’s really tired right now, so—”

I attempted to use Si-hyun as an excuse to politely decline, but when I turned to look beside me…

She was gone.

I glanced around and spotted her a short distance away, standing right in front of me with a face full of amusement, grinning.

She was really, really quick-witted for a kid.

“Unni! Go take the picture with them! And make sure to get one on your phone too!”

Gone was her usual polite speech—her voice now bursting with youthful enthusiasm.

Hearing that, the cosplayers beamed as they approached me eagerly.

“Looks like your sister gave permission! Come on, just one picture, please?”

“Yeah, come on! Should we all strike a pose for a group shot?”

“Do you know Camilla’s cinematic pose? Oh, wow—you do!”

And just like that, I ended up taking a ton of photos.

For some reason, I even found myself putting extra effort into my poses.