I really have to take a shit.

I've been walking for hours. I can feel it in my legs.

There's no way to keep track of the passage of time in this area.

The space outside of the cloud road is obscured by thick cloud cover, and it feels like the source of light moves from above to below, rather than East to West.

But my legs are conditioned to know how far 10 km is, because that's roughy the distance from my apartment to the Tokyo Dome, where I would watch the Hams crush the Yomiuri Giants.

That's right, whenever I watched the games in person at Biggueggu, the Hams would win and the Giants would lose. So I made sure to buy as many tickets to Hams games and attend them in person.

That's why my legs are so athletic. And that's how I know I've been walking for far longer thn 10 km.

My last memories of the office happened at 4:00 afternoon JST, and I had had a big lunch that day consisting of...everything that wants to come out now.

Guu.

I keep walking in the hopes of finally arriving at "Olympia Skywalk".

If this world were a video game, simply leaving that "field" would have automatically taken me to Olympia Skywalk.

That's a big "if".

It resembles the video game Sugar Maple but this isn't a video game.

At least not for me.

There are no stat screens, level ups, or experience points that I can see.

Or skills.

Or anything like magic or superpowers that I've encountered.

In the original game, the world map was divided into "towns" and "fields". Quite simply, towns were safe areas where monsters didn't appear. Fields were danger areas where monsters made habitat.

The area my kouhais and I spawned in was the first "field" in the Himmler Cumulonimbus, a 'continent' of islands in the sky made of a solid type of iron cloud, Cumulonickel.

The iron cloud is more buoyant than the air in this region, and floats atop the air like islands do the ocean.

In fact, if I were to dive off one of these clouds, I would immediately die due to the toxicity of and thickness of the air. It's not breathable to the lungs, eyes or skin.

Below Himmler is Sugar Maple's greatest mountain range, Goering Peaks, and because of the toxic air the only safe passage is through the Olympus Tor, a 99-floor stone tower connecting the Himmler Cumulonimbus and the town of Goer's Hamlet.

Olympus Tor isn't a town, each floor is a "field" and the monsters there in the original game were high level. At my current strength, there's no way I could ever hope to mke it down to Goer's Hamlet.

So the only option is to go the opposite direction.

Himmler is not the beginner region of the game. In fact, you could call it the endgame region, despite being designed to be midgame.

And that's because Sugar Maple is an unfinished game.

The developers, Wisent, abandoned the game for future development and instead turned their attention to a sequel, Sweet Sugar Maple or Sugar Maple II.

I won't say tht Sugar Maple was a big part of my childhood. I was 17 when it came out, and I played it for a single year before going to university and working for Ashikaga Soft.

I have fond memories of many other games from my youth, expriences that I shared with long gone friends, and I didn't even like Sugar Maple all that much due to the lack of care from the developers.

But it does hold one special place in my heart.

It was the last video game I ever played before...

...

There.

About 1000 meteres away from me, I can see the clouds open up to a wide, open expanse.

Even from this distance, without my glasses, I can recognize it.

...

Without my glasses?

I had scarcely realized that I was able to see just fine without glasses.

Could this be one of my isekai CHEATS??

What other powers do I have?!

I was so excited by the potential of getting a cheat, I loosened my anal muscles a bit.

A wet sensation dribbled out.

The mechnical grinding of all that walking had taken a toll on my large intestine.

I have two options. I can spare my trousers and give the walkway a new coat of paint, or I can try to preserve my dignity and risk shitting my pants as I waddle to the finish line.

My intenstines are bubbling, the clock has started. I have seconds to react.

...

...

...

You want to know what this plot thread and I have in common?

We both have no ends.