How Come Everyone Else Is a Tourist, but She's a VIP?!

"I hope we don't know each other."

After Joker said that,

he fell silent.

Shen Niannian fell silent too.

(・_・;)

Those words...

didn't sound like they came from someone who didn't know her.

Han Feng and the others immediately sensed that something was wrong.

When this clown had appeared just now,

his S-rank weird pressure had almost left everyone unable to breathe.

But after he saw Shen Niannian-

He dropped his bowling ball.

His smile froze.

Even his manic air had noticeably subsided.

The livestream had long since erupted.

"Here we go!"

"Here comes the usual routine again!"

"I knew there was no way this woman would have a normal instance run!"

"Wait, this time it's an S-rank instance lord!"

"An A-rank at the Blood Moon Hotel knows her, an A-rank in Mirror City knows her, a peak A-rank in Night Capital knows her, and the S-rank Su Wangyin knows her. Now even the lord of the Death Amusement Park knows her?!"

"Did she treat the Weird World like a tourist map when she was little?!"

Shen Niannian was much calmer now than she had been at the start.

She looked down

at the [Identity Archive] again.

[Target: Joker]

[Danger level: S-rank]

[Identity: Lord of the Death Amusement Park]

[Current status: wary]

[Current status: doesn't want trouble]

When she saw the last entry,

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up slightly.

(✧ω✧)

Good.

She could work with that.

She cleared her throat.

"Since you know me, what kind of relationship did we have before?"

The greasepaint on Joker's face twitched slightly.

"Ordinary."

[Current status: unwilling to remember]

Shen Niannian: "..."

Ordinary, my ass.

She continued, "Have I been to the Death Amusement Park before?"

Joker said nothing.

"Have I?"

"..."

"Have I really?"

Joker finally spoke through gritted teeth. "Once."

"And then?"

"It's not important."

"I think it's pretty important."

Joker stared at the young woman before him, who had clearly lost her memories of the past but was still pressing him for answers with a serious expression.

He was silent for a long time.

At last, he slowly forced out a sentence:

"After that,

the Death Amusement Park stopped letting children in for free."

Shen Niannian: "?"

All the players: "?"

The livestream: "???"

(⊙_⊙)

Shen Niannian looked down at herself.

Nineteen years old.

An adult.

Though she did look a lot like a child.

But-

"What on earth did I do before?"

Joker forced a very unpleasant smile.

"Miss Shen, you're here to play games today, not dig up the past."

"What's past

should stay in the past."

[Current status: very much wants the past to stay in the past.]

Shen Niannian: "..."

All right.

It looked like she really hadn't done anything good before.

But right now, she was more concerned with staying alive.

So she naturally changed the subject.

"Since you know me, can you give me some special treatment?"

Joker: "..."

Han Feng: "..."

The other players: "..."

The livestream paused briefly.

Then everyone burst out laughing.

"She really started asking for it herself!"

"She spent ages doubting it in the first three instances, but now she's evolved to straight-up asking for freebies!"

"Shen Niannian: Since you're already scared of me, wouldn't it be rude not to take advantage?"

Joker's mouth twitched twice.

"What sort of special treatment would you like, Miss Shen?"

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up instantly.

It really was negotiable!

She immediately began counting on her fingers. "A map of the park, the locations of the four designated attractions, how to tell the official staff apart, and preferably a VIP card that lets me skip some of the lines. If possible, a bucket of popcorn too."

Joker: "..."

Wasn't she being a little too casual about this?

Han Feng and the others listened with their eyes twitching.

This was the S-rank Death Amusement Park!

Its historical clear rate was 1.6%!

Someone had just been cut alive into a tourist wristband!

Yet what Shen Niannian was discussing with the instance lord now was-

Was there a VIP option?

Could she spend less time in line?

And popcorn?

Joker was silent for a while.

At last, he snapped his fingers.

Snap!

The colorful tourist wristband on Shen Niannian's left wrist suddenly glowed gold.

Its ordinary plastic texture quickly faded.

It turned into an elegant black-and-gold wristband.

A golden smiley face also appeared in the center.

[Temporary identity obtained: Death Amusement Park VIP tourist]

[VIP privilege one: Outside the operating periods of attractions, ordinary park staff may not initiate harm against VIP tourists.]

[VIP privilege two: Priority access to the attractions of your choice.]

[VIP privilege three: May ask official staff about publicly available attraction rules.]

[Note: VIP privileges do not grant exemption from the core rules of attractions.]

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up completely.

(✧ω✧)

There really was one!

Joker pulled a folded map from his clothes.

He shoved it into her hand with a slap.

Then he added expressionlessly:

"Official staff all wear red smiley-face badges on their chests. That's already written in the tourist rules."

"There are four designated attractions in total."

"The Beheading Roller Coaster."

"The Corpse Puppet Carousel."

"The Smiley Face Haunted House."

"The Midnight Ferris Wheel."

"Every time you complete an attraction, you can obtain a smiley-face stamp."

He paused.

"As for the popcorn..."

Joker reached into the nearby ticket booth and pulled out a large bucket.

He handed it to her.

"Strawberry flavor."

Shen Niannian took it in her arms.

"Thank you."

(◕ᴗ◕✿)

Dead silence fell over everyone.

Han Feng glanced down at his own wrist.

An ordinary, colorful plastic band.

Then he looked at Shen Niannian's.

Black-and-gold VIP.

Then he looked at the bucket of popcorn in her arms.

He suddenly felt as though they hadn't entered the same S-rank instance.

The livestream went completely wild.

"?????"

"Wait, he actually gave her all that?!"

"A map! VIP status! Rule explanations! And popcorn!"

"Other people enter the Death Amusement Park and someone dies first. She comes in and signs up for a membership first?"

"Who the hell is the instance boss here?!"

One player couldn't help looking tentatively at Joker.

"Um... Mr. Joker, can we apply for VIP status too?"

Joker slowly turned his head.

The smile on his face gradually stretched back to his ears.

"Of course you can."

The man's eyes lit up.

The next second.

Joker pulled a bloody boning knife from inside his coat.

"VIPs have to pay a membership fee."

"Would you like to pay with a leg first,"

"or an eye?"

The man: "..."

His face turned pale in an instant.

"No, thank you."

"I suddenly think being an ordinary visitor is pretty good."

The other players snapped fully awake.

Shen Niannian's treatment.

They couldn't copy it!

Han Feng immediately warned everyone, "Remember, Shen Niannian is clearly receiving special treatment because of her status. Don't treat her actions as a normal strategy. We'll only use the public rules she obtains as a reference. Don't copy the way she deals with Joker."

Shen Niannian held her popcorn.

She nodded silently.

(￣▽￣)

Professional.

She was also afraid someone might actually copy her and pay a leg as a membership fee on the spot.

Joker clearly didn't want to keep talking.

He tossed the bloody bowling ball up from the ground again.

The exaggerated grin on his face gradually returned.

"Then-"

"Dear visitors!"

"Fun time officially begins!"

"Please choose your first attraction for tonight!"

The map unfolded in Shen Niannian's hands.

Four red markers.

The one closest to the entrance-

[Beheading Roller Coaster]

Shen Niannian looked up.

She saw the rusty track not far away.

The roller coaster roared past.

In its eighteen rows of seats.

Sat more than a dozen headless corpses.

And their heads.

Hung in neat rows above the ticket checkpoint.

As the cars flew past.

The heads all opened their eyes at once.

And grinned.

"Welcome aboard-"

"The Beheading Roller Coaster!"

The popcorn in Shen Niannian's hand.

Suddenly didn't seem so appetizing.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

Joker, however, had already bowed with a smile.

"Miss Shen."

"VIPs first."

"After you?"

Shen Niannian: "..."

She looked at the row of heads.

Then looked at Joker.

"Is it too late to cancel my membership now?"

Joker gave her a radiant smile.

"Nope."

"..."

I knew it.

This lousy VIP membership.

I'm going to die anyway!