After Ming Jun asked his question and got his answer,
Shae Harris grew bored and beckoned the others off to lunch.
She stood up first, and suddenly the holograms vanished.
She was so surprised that she quickly sat back down again.
"They vanished so as not to inconvenience you," the guide said, already present a second later.
Shae Harris just said "oh," then began to walk out of her seat again.
The others stood up and followed behind her.
The guide was at the forefront, leading them without needing a word from them.
They entered the food court, which was bustling with people.
The guide led them through a path that was subconsciously avoided by these holograms,
and they ended up at a table placed close to the buffet and subtly isolated from the crowd.
"You can choose any anime-inspired dish," the guide said, dragging a hand in the air across the buffet table.
Shae Harris took a serving spoon and a plate, then answered his words with action.
"Wait… is this even real?" Shae Harris paused and asked.
"It is very real," the guide assured her.
Shae Harris poked a piece of beef on her plate, and her spoon didn't pass through it,
so she went back to happily stuffing her plate.
The others followed after her and chose random dishes.
Then they sat down at their table and ate quietly.
At first, they were restrained because they had never actually eaten in a public space.
Each one of them was an outcast, so eating alone in a corner was their usual practice.
But now they were seated with a lot of "people" who were chatting excitedly about random things.
Slowly, they began to ease into the environment, and their eating became much less restrained.
Shae Harris brought up a topic about a guy at the next table eating something that looked like a heart.
Then Ming Jun went on about how he was cosplaying as this ancient evil vampire who had a thing for elegance,
so he would serve up torn hearts on a silver plate and eat them with a fork and knife.
Mori Aoi gagged.
Wei Zhi glared at them and asked Shae Harris why she couldn't choose a more normal food.
Shae Harris ended up challenging all of them to look for so-called normal foods.
They took up the challenge and started pointing at different dishes.
Ming Jun was responsible for telling the backstory behind each one.
That's how they became completely relaxed and at ease.
They were so relaxed that the two boys began arguing with Shae Harris about her weird tastes,
pointing out even "better" ones,
while Mori Aoi only pointed out the cute-looking desserts.
That was until Ming Jun told her that the cake she pointed to represented a human village,
and that the person was cosplaying as a giant naked human called a titan.
Mori Aoi was so disgusted and horrified that the game had to end.
Wei Zhi took her hand and led her out of the food court.
The two followed behind them, with Ming Jun still arguing with Shae Harris that she didn't win.
"…and I keep telling you, that wasn't a soldier rabbit but an alien that likes to tear—" Ming Jun was in the middle of arguing when he felt a chill.
He jumped and looked forward.
But it was only Wei Zhi and Mori Aoi looking at him.
Ming Jun looked around and glanced at Yi Zheng suspiciously,
but he wasn't even looking at him.
Ming Jun rubbed his hands together and looked around warily.
He concluded that the chill did come from his front,
but it was only Wei Zhi and Mori Aoi in front of him,
and neither of them were the type to give a cold look.
One was too much of a coward, and the other was too timid.
"What were you going to say?" Shae Harris crossed her arms.
She was still stuck on her argument.
"Nothing. Anyway, what should we do next?" Ming Jun changed the subject because he felt like the chill was about to come back.
He was already shivering subconsciously.
"Why don't you go see the concert?" the guide appeared again.
"A concert? Where?" Shae Harris said with bright eyes.
The guide gestured for them to follow him.
This time, Ming Jun and Shae Harris walked in front.
Wei Zhi, who was following behind, lowered his head, and the eyes hidden beneath flickered.
The concert room was large, filled with a huge crowd standing.
They followed the guide to their own special VIP box that was directly in front of the stage.
It was a glass box with a five-foot space formed by the crowd around it.
They stood in a line, and then the box was closed,
which seemed to send a cue because people suddenly appeared on stage and began to play.
The music was upbeat, and the crowd was excited.
The crowd outside the box went completely wild once the huge screen behind the band began showing the opening of the anime.
The four of them — excluding Yi Zheng, who was roaming outside the concert hall —
held glowing sticks and felt their blood pumping.
Under the influence of crowd syndrome and the infection of music,
they began to jump excitedly along with the holograms.
After three songs, the concert ended with the last song from a popular anime.
This time, the crowd even had a special stance —
a fist to the heart with one hand, and another fisted hand placed along the waist at their backs.
"That was fun," Shae Harris said, wiping her sweat with her sleeve.
The others were sprawled on the ground outside the concert hall, too tired to respond.
They only let out a perfunctory hum.
"I'm sure Noi Karn would have liked it very much," Mori Aoi said quietly.
"He would have been so excited," Wei Zhi chuckled.
"Imagine if he tried to climb up the stage," Ming Jun also chuckled at his own statement.
"Hey, what if we convinced him to join the band? Then we could all play," Shae Harris smiled.
"Absolutely not!" they chorused before bursting into laughter.
After resting for a while and taking a sip of cold drinks handed to them by the guide,
they went off to their next destination —
anime screenings.
They sat at the center seats and were given a single remote.
The guide explained that they just needed to think of a genre and press the button,
then the screen would play whatever they thought of.
Ming Jun wanted to have the first pick, but they all refused.
"With your odd tastes, I don't want to spoil it just yet," Shae Harris said.
"I don't think we should let ourselves be disgusted before we even give it a try," Wei Zhi patted his back.
"Then who should go first?" Ming Jun retorted at both of them.
"Of course it's me," they said at the same time, then glared at each other.
"I should obviously set the pace with some action," Shae Harris argued.
"No, we need to start with some mystery to keep us hooked," Wei Zhi argued back.
"I can solve this very easily," Ming Jun offered with a raised finger.
"If you say it should be you first and the problem will be solved…" Wei Zhi started.
"I'll punch you," Shae Harris ended it by waving a fist.
Ming Jun coughed and thought in his heart that these guys were pretty sharp.
"Rock, paper, scissors," he said, stretching out his hands in a player position.
The two glanced at each other and nodded.
"Hmm, hey, aren't you playing?" Wei Zhi turned back to ask Mori Aoi, who was seated beside him.
Mori Aoi didn't respond, but she held the remote and let out a "hehe."
It turned out she had taken it while they were arguing.
Then she pressed play and didn't bother with them anymore.
The three of them looked at her in shock, then at the screen,
then at her — already chewing popcorn and completely invested.
"Here, it's yours," she even shoved three buckets of popcorn into their hands.
"Ah—" they muttered.
Where am I?
There's no way our timid, sweet friend could do something so sneaky
and still have enough face to pass us popcorn, they thought.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked them with a side glance, looking annoyed.
What else could they do but concede? After all, the movie had already started.
They shook their heads numbly and faced the screen.
After that, the remote was passed from right to left —
Mori Aoi was first, then after her movie, the remote was passed to Wei Zhi,
then to Shae Harris, and finally landed in Ming Jun's palm.
The holograms around them never left or stood up.
They watched all four movies with the same level of enthusiasm.
After six hours of watching movies, they finally came out,
but they found that only two and a half hours had passed.
They found it odd but threw the matter to the back of their heads.
Once you die and return alive, there's not really much that can shock you.
"What would you like to see next?" the guide asked.
"Artist alley," Ming Jun said.
The place was a fan-dominated area.
The booths and stands were run by fans.
They displayed their own fan arts of different animes.
Some even sold stickers, posters, and charms.
The guide explained that they could buy anything using their phones, as it served as an unlimited bank card.
They could also use it to commission fans to create any anime-related object they desired.
"Hey, look over there," Shae Harris pointed at a booth.
It had a fan art of the first characters they cosplayed as.
Ming Jun and Wei Zhi froze at the same time.
They subtly glanced at each other.
Wei Zhi: What do we do!!
Ming Jun: I don't know!!
Wei Zhi: Or we can lead them away??
Ming Jun: Do you think she'd actually agree to that??
Wei Zhi: Then should we lie our way out??
Ming Jun: I can't lie. Can you??
Wei Zhi: So we just give up??
Ming Jun: It seems so.
Wei Zhi and Ming Jun: sigh
Wei Zhi: Then let's just pretend to be calm.
Ming Jun: Okay.
So they reluctantly caught up to the two girls.
Mori Aoi was obviously blushing at the two characters —
the blonde-haired boy and the little sister hugging each other affectionately.
Shae Harris stared at the black-haired character with a snake proposing to the woman with pink hair.
Then she turned back to Ming Jun, who was looking at her calmly.
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
Feeling oddly shy for the first time, she could only stare at him.
Ming Jun almost cracked and looked away, but luckily he was saved by Mori Aoi,
who didn't dare glance back and took the other girl to run away with a red face.
She chose another booth displaying fan art.
She saw some familiar characters from afar and went to see,
but was only rewarded with yet another embarrassing art.
This time, the two orange-haired characters even had a son that looked exactly like his father.
And so did the characters for Shae Harris and Ming Jun.
Both girls were embarrassed and quiet.
Mori Aoi was practically a tomato and could only stutter random gibberish while looking at the ground.
The two males were also embarrassed and couldn't speak.
So they were very relieved when the guide appeared again to ask if they wanted to buy some stickers.
Shae Harris didn't even wait for him to finish before running off.
Then she picked one up and stuck it to Mori Aoi's cheek.
Mori Aoi giggled and also picked a random one.
Then they smirked at each other and slammed one on the foreheads of the two boys.
The two girls felt relieved after retaliating against the boys for making them so embarrassed,
then began ignoring them and chose cute stickers together.
Ming Jun and Wei Zhi chose sticker-like tattoos of designs that some anime characters had.
After that, they went to look around.
Shae Harris got them to make a fake gun that looked very realistic —
though it only shot soft foam bullets.
Mori Aoi got a tiny cute bear.
Ming Jun got a sticker tattoo.
Wei Zhi got a tiny rabbit keychain, which made Mori Aoi blush.
"So what next?" Shae Harris asked.
"The game room," Ming Jun said.