Chapter 353: VIP pass
"Seems like we'd be able to skip this queue if we had some sort of VIP pass."
Alex relayed the information he had gathered to Mira.
But Mira had also been listening to the conversation of the noble carriage at the front, so she knew about the VIP pass already as well.
"Yeah, but how do we even get one? We're not nobles, we're just nobodies in this place."
Mira brought up a very valid fact to Alex, but before they could even consider their situation a bit more, another voice loudly made their presence known from the side.
Ptui!
"You got that right!"
A bulky looking man standing in the queue not too far away from them had heard Mira and Alex's conversation about getting a VIP pass, and he couldn't help but spit in disdain and laugh at them.
"You think you two would be qualified to get a VIP pass from the city? Haha, don't make me laugh!"
Ptui! Enjoy more content from мѵʟ
He spat on the floor once again for some reason…
"Though, perhaps if your little girlfriend were to do me some 'favours', I'd let her come in with me, haha!"
His tone of voice immediately disgusted Mira, especially when she heard his lecherous suggestion based on the fact that he was only 30 mins away from reaching the front and having his turn come.
But even suggesting Mira do something so disgusting just so they could skip a 10 hour wait was a joke!
"Oh? Is that the case? Since you know so much, why don't you tell me what the requirement for a VIP pass is then, Mr Smartass!"
Mira clearly had enough of this guy right from the first moment he opened his mouth, and simply wanted him to embarrass himself in front of the onlookers who were facing them and listening in with interest.
The guy spoke as if he had a VIP pass himself.
"Well that's simple, even a baby would know this! You must really be stupid or new around here! All you have to do is have strength, like everything else in this world! Haha…"
His laughter trailed on, and Mira could only feel her rage nearly hit her boiling point the longer she listened to his bulbous laugh.
But Alex grabbed her arm and started pulling her with him as he made his way to the front, towards the same gate the noble had just used to enter.
"There's no use in arguing with the locals before we've even made it in. Come on, let's go try out luck."
Alex wasn't just doing this to pull Mira away and calm her down though.
That was only half of the reason.
The other half was because of the words that the bulky man had just spoken about VIP passes.
'All you need is strength… I should have known it was as simple as that, especially in a place like this.'
Alex had strength, that was for sure.
The only question was whether he would be able to obtain a VIP pass with his strength or not?
'There's only one way to find out.'
So he led Mira towards the front.
The whole time he and Mira walked down the path to the empty VIP gate, they received glances and heckles from all sorts of people lined up in the normal queue.
People like the bulky man from before who wanted to pick fights for the sake of picking a fight seemed to be a common occurrence in this place, as many people laughed at them and shouted all kinds of obscenities at Mira.
But Alex just held firmly onto her hand and led the two of them forwards with not a single change in his expression the whole time.
Mira naturally knew what he was doing, since she had deduced the same thing from the Bulky man's words as well, but she didn't have the same confidence as Alex.
She was still only a D+ rank, would such strength be enough to pass through?
But Alex wasn't banking on their ranks.
He was banking on their strength.
Going off strength alone, he was equivalent to a higher life form, and Mira was equivalent to a C+ rank Variant class.
If that wasn't enough to let them pass through, then who knew what was…
Soon enough, after a few minutes of a slow walk to the front, they stopped as they reached as close as they could get before the guards would attack them for trying to skip the queue.
"VIP entrance only, please present your VIP pass or scram!"
The same guard shouted the same sentence at them as he did with the noble entourage.
'It seems they really don't discriminate against who goes where so long as they have the right credentials…'
This was a pleasant surprise to Alex, as the bulky man and the majority of the normal queue were clearly the opposite, judging them and everything about them the whole time they made their way to the front.
"I don't have a VIP pass."
Alex just spoke it out plainly.
There was no point in trying to beat around the bush or try to feign ignorance or anything.
"Then scram to the back of the line!"
The guard, doing his job, told them to effectively fuck off when he heard what Alex said.
But instead of leaving, Alex stood his ground.
"But I'd like to get one."
This time, the guard and other guards around the area raised their eyebrows at Alex's request.
Even some of the travellers who were receiving their own entry permits at the normal gate not too far away from them looked at Alex like he was dumb.
"Don't you understand what VIP means!? It means this gate isn't for you, scram!"
"I take it back, they definitely discriminate."
Alex didn't keep his thoughts to himself this time, instead voicing them out to Mira, whilst making it loud enough for anybody nearby to hear.
"A 'friend' back there told me there are some requirements to obtain a VIP pass, would you care to inform me of those?"
Alex wasn't fully trusting of the bulky man's words about strength being the only requirement, so he wanted to hear it straight from the guards themselves.