In a crossover anime, do you believe that a machine spirit can defeat a fake human?

"Do you really think I'm a child? Haven't you ever told me that you're actually not very good at lying? Fine, I'll keep an eye on the house." Sakurajima Mai frowned, her face full of helplessness.

Since he specifically instructed her to stay at home, the reason couldn't be simply 'unnecessary' or 'hiding something from her,' but rather a plan that could very likely put her in danger.

Mai Sakurajima knew that she often couldn't keep up with Chen Yi, and in this situation, she could only silently swallow her worries and pray for him.

"I'll keep the rifle for you. If necessary, you can also use voice control to control the 'messenger' and protect your safety."

Chen Yi was too lazy to continue making things up. In the end, he strapped the arm shield to his hand, stuffed the DSR-50 into his guitar bag, put on his helmet, and went out.

Mai Sakurajima stared silently for a long time before finally looking away.

......

The reason for not carrying a rifle is simple: if an emergency were to occur, Mai Sakurajima would need the rifle more than he would.

Keeping an anti-materiel sniper rifle at home is of little use. In an emergency, it is difficult for a person to use a sniper rifle at close range like a rifle. Moreover, the danger level of the scarecrow he is facing is unknown. The firepower of a weapon with a relatively larger caliber is obviously superior to that of a regular medium-caliber automatic weapon.

Of course, another reason is that he can summon Kruka's rifle at any time, so there is no need to go out and get a separate rifle.

Walking and stopping, Chen Yi wandered around the street, occasionally seeing some cosplayers holding signs or pushing suitcases, all walking in the same direction.

As he expected, the pedestrians on the roadside occasionally cast curious or scrutinizing glances at him, but overall it did not cause any disturbance.

"Commander, according to the data, Scarecrows like to hunt in crowded places, so anime conventions with large crowds might be one of its targets," Kroos reminded him.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Otherwise, why do you think I would have used such a reason?" Chen Yi followed the route of the anime and manga enthusiasts on the street and blended into the crowd.

"Handsome, what character are you playing?" a friendly girl asked. She had her pink hair tied up in two fluffy ponytails and looked like a magical girl.

"...Call of Duty... Ah, just think of it as a character I created myself." Chen Yi answered subconsciously, then remembered that there didn't seem to be a COD series of games in this world, so he quickly changed his mind.

"This stuff must be expensive, right? Where did you get it?" Another slightly chubby guy wearing glasses joined the discussion.

"I made it myself, imitating the standard equipment of Ironblood. It looks pretty accurate, right?" Chen Yi's tone was filled with pride. There were some flaws, but neither of them noticed them.

"It's really accurate... What's it called...?" The magical girl is practically leaping out of her skin.

"Yinglong, I guess? It seems to be more of a reconnaissance-focused Yinglong 4?" The bespectacled nerd thought for a moment and asked somewhat uncertainly.

"This is the prototype." Chen Yi didn't give a definitive answer because he didn't know which model it was.

"Are you two in cahoots?" Chen Yi asked, looking at the two people on his left and right, with some doubt.

"Ah, I don't recognize it," the bespectacled nerdy guy denied. "I just looked at this thing and thought it looked like the real thing, so I came up to ask," he replied.

"He's so handsome, teacher, can I take a picture?" Another magical girl was more direct, taking out her phone and asking.

"No problem." Chen Yi paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and then gave a thumbs-up.

"Oh dear, that's not cool enough... How about crossing your arms? Seems like that won't work, the shield is too thick... How about I turn the shield sideways to block?" The magical girl was somewhat dissatisfied with Chen Yi's silly appearance.

"Hey you, can you help me out?" The magical girl handed over her phone, then raised her wand and stood next to Chen Yi, striking a pose.

"Oh, okay..."

"Are you going the same way too?" After taking the photos, seeing that the two didn't seem to be heading anywhere else, Chen Yi asked.

"After all, they're all going to comic conventions." The bespectacled otaku shrugged.

Summer Vacation: Chapter 124 Comic Con and Haunted House

"There are a lot of people..." Chen Yi looked around from the outside of the convention center, where crowds from all over the city were converging.

"After all, this series of exhibitions can be considered the largest comic convention in Chiba, with a total of three floors," the magical girl said.

Huh? Everyone's rushing to Mihama Ward? Hasn't the authorities issued any warnings about these fake people? What are they doing?

Chen Yi thought to himself, but his expression remained unchanged.

It's probably true that there aren't any left, since I heard this rumor from Futaba.

After entering the venue and parting ways with the two, Chen Yi walked alone to the outer edge of the locker room and found that there seemed to be quite a few people inside.

To openly take out an anti-materiel sniper rifle and assemble it here... that would surely cause a riot.

Let's not assemble it yet. Anyway, we can just summon the acid-corrosion rifle in a real emergency.

Chen Yi passed by a fan-made comics booth, picked up a map of the convention, and found a quiet corner to start planning.

"Even if the scarecrow were really here, it wouldn't be able to move since it's daytime now. Based on this theory, if it wanted to stay hidden, there would be no need for it to come to the comic convention. Its goal must be to avoid being caught while maintaining a low level of pollution."

Besides hiding, what other methods can achieve the above conditions?

“A disguise that is not easily detected,” Kroos said calmly.

Like hiding in a pile of clutter, or as scattered props at a fan-made booth, as long as the number of people affected at one time is small, they might be able to be hidden perfectly in a crowded and highly mobile comic convention.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yi decided to try his luck at the fan-made content booths first.

......

"They even have adult comics..." Chen Yi glanced at the stall and moved away without a second thought.

Why is it a short guy running this kind of stall? He looks like he's only in middle school. Does his family know about it?

Chen Yi's gaze lingered on the back of a blond man with pigtails for a moment, and he thought to himself.

Pushing through the crowd, Chen Yi returned to the less crowded rest area, unscrewed the plastic bottle, and took a big gulp.

"About an hour has passed, and I've pretty much finished browsing through the fan-made booths on the first floor, but I haven't found anything worthwhile." Chen Yi took out a pencil and made marks on the map.

The only areas on the first floor that haven't been checked are the fire exits, employee rest areas, and patrol areas... The latter two should be left alone.

"Let's go up to the second floor first." Chen Yi finalized the next step of the plan and put away the pen and map.

"To be honest, I think searching blindly like this is pretty useless," Chen Yi couldn't help but say to Kroos.

"If the commander wants to retreat, I think that's understandable."

"No, the main problem is that finding someone without any clues at a comic convention is just too difficult," Chen Yi added.

Strictly speaking, the other party is not a person.

"If it's not human, it means it's more likely to be hidden in some nook or cranny." Chen Yi walked up the stairs and brushed past a staff member dressed as a teddy bear.

Upon arriving on the second floor, the first thing that caught Chen Yi's attention was the huge tent in the center of the hall, its pure black exterior making it extremely conspicuous.

"Haunted house".

The map showed what each area was for, but Chen Yi still couldn't quite understand the point of having a haunted house at a comic convention.

"The haunted house is dark, and most of the props are scary mechanical dolls, so the scarecrow is quite likely to be hiding inside," Kroos analyzed.

"We're going anyway," Chen Yi chimed in, and silently walked toward the haunted house.

......

Claimed to be the scariest haunted house...? Chen Yi stared at the sign at the entrance, hesitating for a moment.

Haha, seems a little scared.

"I heard that someone was frightened unconscious and carried out a dozen minutes ago." Two passersby were discussing it enthusiastically.

“Go in and test them out? My M249 is no pushover!” Another person remained completely unfazed, raising a plastic-looking model gun in one hand and showing it off to his companion.

"Don't be a coward when you go in later."

"Whoever backs down is a coward."

Chen Yi looked at them, and on a whim, he began to assemble the DSR on the spot.

Install the barrel, tighten the three screws, then insert the empty magazine into the magazine well and the loaded magazine into the spare magazine well. This ensures that the gun will not misfire under normal circumstances and that it will be ready for combat in critical situations.

"Wouldn't it be more convenient to just leave the magazine out and put it in the waist pack?" Kluke looked at Chen Yi's puzzling actions with some confusion.

Ah, right.

After assembling it, he wrapped it in a camouflage cloth to resemble a sword, and hung it on the waistband with a sling. Chen Yi stood up and looked around.

No one showed any interest in investigating, and few even noticed, suggesting that the convention has an unusually high tolerance for all sorts of things.

“Let’s go,” Chen Yi said to Kelukai, turning on the night vision thermal fusion mode of the smart helmet.

......

Strictly speaking, this haunted house truly deserves its title as the most terrifying haunted house.

Of course, this is Chen Yi's perspective. The main reason for his fear was that the various mechanisms in the haunted house caused him to frequently have non-existent memories, as if he had really entered the lair of the fake people.

Chen Yi sat in the chair, looking somewhat absent-minded; his body was still there, but his mind had already wandered off for a while.

Screams echoed from all around, separated by thin walls, including the sounds of girls crying in fear.

What kind of project is this?

After sitting in the chair for a while, Chen Yi realized that this mechanism seemed to require him to operate it himself, and he brought his attention back to the machine.

A screen, a few buttons, and a turnstile—

So familiar.

Chen Yi clicked, and a surveillance video immediately appeared on the screen, flickering like an old-fashioned static screen.

The camera lens seemed to be covered by a grayscale filter, showing a narrow room with two giant dolls standing in it, and the lights flickering on and off.

The Night Harem at Freddy's?

A famous horror game I had played in my past life popped into my mind. Upon closer inspection, apart from the slight difference in the appearance of the doll, the gameplay was exactly the same.

Chen Yi immediately stood up, moved away from the chair, and walked in another direction to find the exit.

"Wait a minute, Commander." Kroos called out to him. Chen Yi turned around and saw Kroos squatting on the ground, seemingly looking for something.

Chen Yi leaned closer and, following the direction she was pointing, found a very thin blade of dry grass on the ground.

Chen Yi turned off the night vision thermal fusion of the smart helmet, turned on his headlamp, and picked up the hay to examine it carefully.

The hay was pale overall, quite different from the characteristics of yellow or brown wheat stalks, and it smelled somewhat fishy.

Focusing the diffused light from the headlamp into a beam of light, it illuminates the hay, revealing silvery-gray downy hairs that resemble mycelium.

This is not ordinary hay; it may have a strong connection to scarecrows.

Straightening up again, the acid-corrosion rifle suddenly appeared in his hand, and Chen Yi looked towards the closed mechanism door.

Summer Vacation: Chapter 125 Encounter

Pushing open the door to the employee entrance, one is greeted by a dilapidated corridor. Apart from the broken paint and the broken 'emergency exit' indicator light, there is only an incongruous camera that is still in operation.

This is inside the scene of that surveillance game.

Chen Yi took out a fairy from his waist belt and released it.

"Klukay, the map drawing is in your hands." Chen Yi glanced at the monitor, thought for a moment, raised the acid-corrosion rifle in his hand and fired a shot, destroying the camera with a soft bang.

Gunshots can also be suppressed by concentrating, making the function of this acid-etching rifle increasingly mysterious.

Because system adaptation and compatibility have not yet been done, the control of the fairies is still actually done through the mobile phone. This means that tasks that could be done by one person now require two people to work together.

Watching the fairy disappear into the darkness, Chen Yi silently activated Night Vision Thermal Fusion and followed her trajectory deeper into the darkness.

"Commander, the fairy's visual module has limited exploration capabilities in such low-light conditions," Kroos said in her mind.

Chen Yi watched as the fairy flew back after circling in the darkness, and reached out to catch it.

Strictly speaking, this is a flying grenade, and it cannot be expected to serve a reconnaissance function in all environments.

"I will develop a special game to detect fairies later," Chen Yi said, remaining vigilant as he explored the scene set up by the monitoring game.

The scene was realistically aged, and on the display stand, there were three animal dolls slightly taller than a person, two of which had cracked skins, revealing the wire frames inside.

Chen Yi looked inside and saw some mechanical skeletons. In some hard-to-detect places, work lights could be seen flashing regularly.

"Does this thing move?" Chen Yi looked at it from left to right. Perhaps because no one was outside monitoring the situation, none of the doll's mechanisms were triggered.

Is this what you're going to do with robots? Will it bring down the cost?

“Commander, it was actually triggered, it should have been triggered by you earlier.” Kroos pointed to the empty display stand. Chen Yi walked over and found some wire connectors and other things.

"It seems that's true." Chen Yi looked around and saw a half-open door. The doll must have gone that way.

Looking back at the remaining three dolls, Chen Yi felt a strange chill. After confirming that there were no clues in this area, he pushed open the door to the employee passage and walked to the next area.

......