Everyone is an adult here, so everyone needs to be honest. Li Pu was simply here to study Cosplay culture, and as for Welfare Jis... he was naturally rather tempted by their bodies.
Anyway, he had a little bit of spare cash now, so he could afford to be tempted.
As long as it wasn't too expensive.
Yet the moment he saw them in person, Li Pu instantly felt like a paragon of virtue!
That was...
A tank! Even if it didn't reach the level of a heavy tank, it had at least hit medium tank status, and her makeup-enhanced prettiness barely managed to crawl up to a seven out of ten. Besides, that makeup—she would have been better off not wearing any!
Ah... truly hard on the photographer and the retoucher...
Li Pu always felt like he was really awkward right now, unable to advance and unable to retreat.
Who made that photographer see him in the first place? Who made him act like an idiot and post a selfie?
The photographer was currently waving right at him.
"Heh hahaha~" Li Pu still bit the bullet and walked over. Since he was already here and had already been discovered, there was no choice to back down. Truly, this was an appointment of his own making, one he had to swallow his tears and go through with. Still, even though she looked vastly different from the pictures you could see on Bluebird, what if she was very knowledgeable about COSer stuff?
In that case, he would inevitably need to approach learning Cosplay knowledge with great humility.
"Hello everyone~ Hello everyone~" Li Pu pulled out a huge, as sunny-looking smile as possible and said, "My name is..."
"My name is Merciful Mother Guards the Center Line."
Li Pu decided not to reveal his real name. He swept his gaze over the several tan... maidens present, deciding to show off his ACG knowledge first to win a tiny bit of favor.
He instantly took a fancy to a tan... maiden dressed in what should be the character he recognized.
"Is your Cosplay a T-62... No, I mean, is your Cosplay Katyusha?"
"It seems you especially like Girls und Panzer."
"What a coincidence, I like it too~"
"Is this Cosplay? Nailed it! Nailed it!"
Welfare girl.
I believe many people are not unfamiliar with them, regardless of what their original intentions and motivations for entering this line of work are.
Yet those who could sell fanservice certainly had fanservice to sell; having low looks with a good figure worked, and having a bad figure with high looks could also work. At least, that was what Li Pu thought before he met them.
After all, everyone knew that doing this kind of slightly suggestive stuff was just for jerking off.
However, separated by a screen, the asking price was very high, and the quality naturally had to be much higher as well.
!
So seeing them in person...
Li Pu only then discovered that, actually, between him and a welfare girl, there wasn't just a computer screen separating them. There was also an excellent makeup artist, hairstylist, costume designer, photographer, prop master, retoucher, and even a lighting technician.
If not for politeness, or because these words were truly difficult to voice.
He really wanted to advise these few young ladies.
You'd better earn your living by ability; the money brought in by your looks and figures wasn't even enough to be split among all those people in the middle.
The atmosphere wasn't considered particularly harmonious. That photographer, who was also the initiator of this offline gathering, was a slightly chubby older brother around 168 centimeters tall dressed in all black. He intended to liven up the atmosphere and said, "Since everyone has arrived, just order whatever you want to eat."
"I'm treating this time."
"Fatty big bro is awesome." "Fatty big bro is generous." "Then we won't be polite."
The other three girls looked a bit insincere. After offering some hypocritical praise, they hurriedly called the waiter to order their favorite snacks.
"Get me a serving of Northern Shaanxi stewed vegetables." Li Pu didn't even look at the menu before demanding it directly.
"Uhm, this big bro." The maid waifus felt that Li Pu's request was simply preposterous. What kind of place was this? Leaving aside this dish she had never even heard of.
"We don't sell that here." The maid waifu wasn't awkward; she wanted to sneer but held it back.
Sporting a polite yet slightly arrogant smile, she said, "This big bro, this is a Western restaurant. We don't sell those things."
"Then bring me a th... Never mind." Li Pu didn't mean to give the maid waifu a hard time; he was purely worried about not eating enough.
In Li Pu's impression, this kind of restaurant had always sold style, and as for the issue of eating your fill.
That probably wasn't within their considerations.
"Then bring me a serving of omelette rice full of love." Li Pu spoke again.
"Sorry, this big bro..." The maid waifu seemed a bit awkward again. She had heard of this thing, but this place really didn't have it. She maintained her previous smile and deliberately emphasized, "This is a Western-style restaurant, we..."
"Then bring me a portion of coq au vin and a baguette." Li Pu interrupted the maid waifu before she could finish speaking.
"W-What is this?!" The smile on the maid waifu's face finally became a bit difficult to maintain; it froze on her face like it could fall off at any second.
"This is French-style braised chicken and a baguette!" Li Pu tilted his head without looking at the menu and said, "How about it?"
"Since you claim to be a Western restaurant."
"You should at least have this much, right?"
"This..." The maid waifu said very awkwardly, "We... don't have this either, we have..."
"Frying a steak, boiling some Italian pasta, and serving a cup of coffee doesn't make something a Western restaurant."
Li Pu leaned back in his chair with one arm resting on the back of the chair and said, "Just look around and bring whatever."
He didn't want to give people a hard time, nor did he want to be looked down upon. Li Pu could completely tell that this maid waifu regarded him as a bumpkin who understood nothing. Her choice of words was fine, but the disdain in her tone could still be heard.
He also admitted that he dressed very cheaply and didn't look like someone wealthy.
Yet being mocked just because of these things forced one to launch a small counterattack.
"Alright." Seeing that Li Pu didn't continue saying anything, the maid waifu hurriedly agreed. Of course, she also put away her previous look-down-on-people expression.
This person who didn't look like he dressed particularly well didn't seem quite so easy to mess with.
The few others also ordered their meals, and the maid waifu quickly left.
"Why did Fatty big bro pick a place like this?" Li Pu asked, looking at the maid waifu's back.
"I just come here often." That chubby big bro laughed quite cheerfully and said, "I've made my friends laugh at me, though. This place used to have pretty good service across the board. They probably saw that you, brother, just came straight from work wearing your work clothes, so they were a bit inattentive."
Fatty hadn't expected to actually run into this kind of situation. This kind of plot, where a seemingly blind waiter acts all high and mighty in front of a low-key wealthy young master and then gets their face slapped on the spot, had actually played out directly right in front of him.
It really made one feel like they were watching a TV drama.
"Hahaha~ I really did just come straight from work."
Li Pu tugged at the work clothes on his body. He didn't have many clothes, so he simply treated his work clothes as everyday wear.
"Speaking of which." Li Pu glanced at the three Welfare Jis beside him and said, "Weren't those makeup artists, costume designers, and hairstylists supposed to come too?"
"How come only the COSer and you, the photographer, are here?"
"They're coming, of course~" Fatty big bro happily raised a hand and said, "Let me introduce them. The one Cosplaying Sakura Kinomoto is called Nuonuo, she's the makeup artist you mentioned; the one Cosplaying Katyusha is Minnie, the prop master; and the last one, the JK, is the costume designer. The clothes on their bodies came from this one's hands."
"Her name is Lily~"
"Oh~ I see." Li Pu nodded.
So these three people—T62, Project 140, and Project 430U—were respectively the makeup artist, costume designer, and prop master.
That was actually pretty good. They had managed to gather Cosplay, costumes, props, photography, and makeup all at once? It seemed he hadn't come to the wrong place this time.
Those three Welfare Jis waved their hands, obviously looking very uninterested in Li Pu.
As Welfare Jis, they obviously weren't all that... weren't particularly friendly toward someone like Li Pu, who might not be a customer but rather a competitor.
Of course, it couldn't quite be called hostile either.
"I heard Merciful Mother Guar—what should I call you?" Fatty big bro felt that Li Pu's nickname was too long and simply didn't plan to use the full title. But without the full title, the address felt a bit wrong. He simply decided to ask Li Pu to come up with a better name.
"You can call me Captain." Li Pu took a sip of tea and said, "I want to do some Cosplay."
"Do you know King Arthur? A well-known figure in the history of the Isles."
He took out a few pictures downloaded from the internet, pulled out a detailed design drawing of a Cosplay costume, and placed them in front of Fatty big bro, saying, "These things."
"Can you make them for me?"
"Let us see."
The three Welfare Jis' eyes instantly lit up. Without waiting for Fatty big bro to say much, they snatched the pictures and the design drawings away to study them.
The actions of these three Welfare Jis were quite overbearing, and if one cared, it would definitely invite annoyance. But Fatty big bro was a magnanimous person and also a photographer.
Jobs related to making Cosplay costumes and props were not within the scope of his concerns.
Nor were they in his field for making money, so he didn't get angry at all when those three Welfare Jis snatched them away.
Sipping his coffee, he said, "I thought brother was here to Cos, but I didn't expect you to want to Cos. Although I don't run those kinds of businesses, if brother wants to Cos, I do know quite a few COSers."
Fatty big bro felt that he had truly struck dogshit luck.
Since he had brought Welfare Jis along, everyone understood this kind of gathering. Pulling off a one-on-one double movement or a one-to-many group movement was entirely possible.
The person who came this time had just joined the chat group, and not knowing his background or bottom line, Fatty had brought these three along.
Fortunately, the other party wanted to Cos rather than to Cos.
These three could also happen to make a little pocket money.
A pimp, huh... Li Pu snorted through his nose. It wasn't that he looked down on this Fatty big bro; he was an honest man who had come strictly and properly to study Cosplay knowledge.
He guaranteed he wasn't here to lust after their bodies.
Besides, they had brought three medium tanks over; how was anyone supposed to lust after that?
No matter what, at least bring three light tanks.
If not, bringing wheeled vehicles would work too.
Of course, he, Li Pu, didn't dabble in loli-con shit; tonages and production years that were too small were better avoided.
"I'm specifically here to Cos." Li Pu said with a very pretentious air, "Can these things be made? I demand a high degree of accuracy! Try to follow the blueprints as closely as possible."
"Money is no object, as long as you can make them for me."
With those two hundred thousand won in tips, the first character he intended to Cos wasn't Old Sword or Arthur from film and television dramas, but rather the one from actual history.
As the prototype, understanding this King Arthur would be very helpful for understanding the Bed King derived from him. However, wanting to Cos this King Arthur came with quite high demands.
These three Welfare Jis quickly looked at the drawings until they were completely dazed and befuddled.
"This..." Lily held the documents between her fingers, extremely eager to confirm that this person wasn't just here to mess around, and said, "Are you... certain you want to wear this kind of thing? This doesn't look like a C-costume by any stretch of the imagination!"
Rather than a design drawing, this was more like a historical text! Are you sure you're here to Cos instead of making them do your graduation project?
Graduation projects weren't even this complicated!
"This is indeed rather difficult to handle." Li Pu scratched his head and said, "But this is what I need."
"I don't want to Cos the King Arthur from games and anime."
"So... so..."
"It's not that I'm complaining." Another tank, Minnie, looked up and down at the seemingly not-very-sturdy youth before her and said, "Do you have any idea how much this outfit of yours would weigh if it were crafted completely according to what's given here?"
"This isn't a C-costume."
"It's armor!"
"All-metal!"
Heavy!
Don't really think that this kind of all-metal armor was a joke; a full set weighing less than ten to twenty kilograms would be considered light. And that probably didn't even include the side sword and other items inside it.
Moreover, the manufacturing process for this kind of thing...
Before you continue