WTNL Chapter 75 [Arc 4]

Fantasy Amusement Park
Chapter 75: The door of the kingdom of happiness is open to you!

[Welcome to the Nightmare Live Broadcast Room, the next live broadcast is about to begin!]
[Our motto is: Entertainment to Death!]

Wen Jianyan opened his eyes amidst a chorus of laughter and noise.

This was a spacious plaza. Joyful, childlike music echoed in his ears, and the air was filled with sweet scents—the smell of candy, popcorn, freshly baked pastries… A mixture of various sweet aromas that brought back memories of happy childhood times.

Many endearingly clumsy mascots in full-body suits stood around the plaza. Some held bunches of colorful balloons, while others pushed delicate little carts filled with all sorts of snacks and toys.

Not far away was a gigantic amusement park entrance gate.

Colorful ribbons and balloons hung upon it, highlighting the five large characters nestled within.

[Fantasy Amusement Park]

But Wen Jianyan realized that all the laughter and noise were coming from loudspeakers placed throughout the plaza. In reality, all the tourists in the plaza looked serious and solemn. They stood vigilantly in place, observing their surroundings.

—They were all streamers, not a single NPC.

Wen Jianyan quickly drew his conclusion.

“Children and adults, welcome to the Fantasy Amusement Park!” an enthusiastic voice rang out.

Everyone looked toward the direction the voice came from.

“Hello everyone, I am the mascot here, Guagua!”

A potbellied mascot wearing a green frog suit appeared in front of the crowd.

“Congratulations to everyone for luckily drawing a one-day pass to the Fantasy Amusement Park! The gates of the happy kingdom are open to you all. I hope everyone can spend a joyful day here!”

As it spoke, it pulled a red horn out of its pocket like magic and tooted it twice. Colorful confetti flew out of the horn, sparkling beautifully under the lights.

But the “adults” before it didn’t seem amused in the slightest. The streamers standing at the very front reflexively jumped back, putting distance between themselves and the floating confetti, terrified of letting even a single piece stick to them.

The barrage area of the [Fantasy Amusement Park] instance became lively:

[After so long, the Fantasy Amusement Park instance is finally open again! As an old fan, I’m thrilled!]

[A joyful day? As if anyone would believe that!]

[Hahahahahaha isn’t that the truth! This is an A-rank instance, nobody here is a newbie anymore, how could they not know the tropes of these instances!]

[However, the quality of streamers this time doesn’t seem that great. I don’t know what happened but a D-rank actually managed to slip in. I bet this wave gets completely wiped out.]

Guagua didn’t seem disappointed by the indifference of the streamers in front of it. It stuffed the horn back into its pocket, waved at the crowd, and walked toward the map near the park entrance:

“Come on, let me introduce you!”

The streamers cautiously followed.

The gates of the amusement park were wide open, allowing them to see all sorts of colorful amusement rides inside, looking exceptionally festive against the backdrop of balloons and fresh flowers.

There were also some tourists inside who appeared to be NPCs. They looked relaxed and happy, carrying various snacks and plush toys in their arms.

“We are divided into a total of three themed zones. If you want to sightsee in the Fairy Tale Town and watch plush toy performances and interactions, you can head to the Children’s Zone on the east side. If you want to play the traditional amusement park attractions, such as the carousel, spinning teacups, Ferris wheel, mirror maze, and so on, you can head to the Leisure Zone on the south side.”

Guagua actively introduced the park map to the streamers:

“Of course, if anyone wants to experience thrilling attractions, you can head to the Thrill Zone on the west side. There’s a pendulum ride, roller coaster, haunted house, and pirate ship over there. It will definitely satisfy your needs!”

After introducing the three themed zones inside the park, Guagua opened its arms and spun around:

“And this right here is the North Plaza of our Fantasy Amusement Park. Over there is the gift shop; you can use your prize tickets to redeem all sorts of merchandise you want later!”

The entire introduction process was fast. The mascot Guagua’s tone was cheerful and cute from beginning to end, and there was nothing remotely inappropriate about the content.

It was simply no different from an ordinary amusement park.

However, this only made the streamers doubly vigilant.

No one knew better than them: the fewer abnormalities there appeared to be, the more abnormal the place actually was.

“Alright, alright, everyone line up and come to me to collect your necessary items for the tour!”

Guagua clapped its hands and said cheerfully, “After collecting them, you can move freely and happily play the attractions!”

The streamers obediently lined up in a single file, walking forward one by one.

Wen Jianyan stood in the middle of the line, slowly shuffling forward.

He took out his phone and opened the Nightmare app’s backend to take a glance.

The [Identity Card] information was completely empty, and the initial survival time hadn’t begun to be allocated either.

Wen Jianyan shoved the phone back into his pocket and imperceptibly scanned the crowd in the plaza, making a rough estimation in his head—there should be at least two to three hundred streamers in this instance, maybe even more.

Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel secretly shocked.

This was his first time experiencing such a massive, multi-streamer open-map instance. Everything was extremely unclear, which also made him doubly cautious.

Soon, Wen Jianyan reached the very front of the line.

He was only a few steps away from the green mascot named Guagua.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and scrutinized it carefully and meticulously.

The velvet-textured toy headpiece looked well-made, and the soft plush exterior wrinkled slightly with its movements, making it impossible to tell whether the staff member under the costume was a human or a ghost.

It was Wen Jianyan’s turn.

He stepped forward and, without batting an eye, accepted three items from the other party’s hands.

Twenty Fantasy Prize Tickets with a face value of 5, a thin, blank Tour Journal, and a folded park map.

The moment he received the items, the system’s familiar voice rang out in his mind:

[Welcome streamer to the A-rank instance ‘Fantasy Amusement Park’. This instance is an open-world, non-time-limited instance!]

A non-time-limited instance?!

Wen Jianyan was stunned.

The previous three instances he had experienced were all time-limited. Being suddenly assigned to a non-time-limited instance this time made it a bit hard for him to adapt at first.

[Upon completing the main quest, the streamer will clear the instance.]

Wen Jianyan pulled out his phone and glanced at the Nightmare app backend. The Identity Card had updated, but this time, the instance hadn’t assigned him any new identity; instead, it directly used his real name and age.

[Identity Card]
Name: Wen Jianyan
Age: 24 Occupation: Contracted Streamer of Nightmare Live Broadcast Room
Related Plot: Because you won a one-day tour ticket to the Fantasy Amusement Park in a lucky draw, you decided to take a day off to visit the amusement park.

[Survival time allocation completed.]

A blood-red countdown began ticking down: [3:00:00]

[Main Quest: Experience five amusement park attractions.]

Wen Jianyan thoughtfully tucked the phone back into his pocket.

Right at this moment, Guagua at the front had finished distributing all the items. It spoke up again, addressing the streamers: “Everyone should have received prize tickets with a total face value of one hundred by now. The Fantasy Amusement Park does not accept cash. Whether you want to buy merchandise or food, or play the attractions, you need to spend prize tickets!”

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes.

So that was how it was.

Although this instance wasn’t a time-limited one, and the main quest seemed extremely simple, the clearance conditions were actually incredibly strict.

First of all, the basic survival time mechanism hadn’t been canceled.

So streamers still needed to use points to redeem survival time to ensure they had enough time to experience five amusement park attractions.

Secondly, this instance featured a gift area and a food area. Wen Jianyan didn’t think these setups would be devoid of value.

The amount of prize tickets in everyone’s hands was fixed, and streamers couldn’t possibly spend such precious prize tickets buying “food” or “amusement park merchandise.” Therefore, these consumption items definitely each had their own purpose. Wen Jianyan was certain that in the later stages, streamers would be forced to spend their prize tickets.

If they consumed too much and ended up without enough prize tickets to buy admission for five attractions, what would happen…?

Wen Jianyan imperceptibly raised his eyes and swept a glance over the streamers gathered in the plaza. They had all tucked away their prize tickets at the fastest possible speed.

When this instance reached its later stages, it was highly likely to evolve into a vicious battle for prize tickets.

Moreover, aside from this, this non-time-limited instance still possessed a hidden time limit.

And that was “one day.”

Wen Jianyan hadn’t forgotten that they had won a one-day pass to the amusement park. If their tour time exceeded 24 hours and they still hadn’t completed the task of experiencing five attractions, it went without saying what might happen next.

Therefore, the main quest of this instance should actually be: within one day’s time, acquire enough survival time and prize tickets to play five attractions.

Just as Wen Jianyan was deep in thought, Guagua not far away continued speaking:

“Everyone can carry the Tour Journal with you to record your happy times in the Fantasy Amusement Park. It might just be helpful to you in the future!”

Wen Jianyan flipped through the Tour Journal.

It was completely blank inside; there was nothing.

Suddenly, Guagua’s voice changed without warning. Although the timbre remained the same, its tone became bizarre.

It was ice-cold, dull, and mechanically flat, entirely devoid of any emotional fluctuation:

“And, the most important point. Please promptly read the park rules on the back of the map, keep them in mind at all times, and absolutely do not violate them.”

Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat.

He pulled out the folded map and unfurled it.

The front of the map contained the exact content Guagua had just explained: the three major themed zones located in three directions of the amusement park, colorful stick-figure drawings marking the attractions in each zone, and winding paths connecting them one by one, looking exceptionally complex and expansive.

Wen Jianyan flipped the map over to the back.

[Fantasy Amusement Park Rules]

Below it was a line of small, blood-red text:

For the life and safety of all tourists, please read these rules carefully and commit them to memory. Do not violate them; otherwise, you will bear the consequences.

Rule 1: Please abide by the internal rules of each zone; everything is subject to the rules.
Rule 2: Please do not horseplay in the North Plaza or cause bloody incidents.
Rule 3: There are no drinking water facilities within this park. If someone tries to peddle drinking water to you, please ignore them and leave. If you feel thirsty, please head to the North Plaza food area to find the staff member wearing a clown suit. …

There seemed to be no internal connection or obvious logic between these rules. They read extremely eerily, bringing about an inexplicable, strong sense of discomfort.

Wen Jianyan quickly scanned downward.

His line of sight fell upon the very last rule, and his pupils involuntarily shrank.

Rule 13: Do not trust the frog.

__

Author’s Note: 

This instance will have some elements of a rules-based creepypasta! I’ve always wanted to try it, and finally got the chance to write one this time.