"S-Safe." (Makoto)

I immediately put on my business suit.

I don't even look around first. There's nobody in the hall anyway.

There's no boxers or undershirt, both were sacrificed in the traumatic experience from yesterday.

After buckling my belt, I notice that the stairs down to the first floor are right next to Miss Understanding's room.

Hm?

Last night, I could have sworn I walked down a long hallway to get to this room.

Well, whatever.

I walk down to the first floor and smell something tasty.

I turn right into a room where food is being placed out onto a long serving table by a woman dressed as a maid.

"Excuse me miss, is this food available for purchase?" (Makoto)

I don't have any money on me, but it's possible the food is being put for free to guests.

"Ojou-san...my, you are a sweet one to this old lady, aren't you." (Maid)

She sounds like an old lady.

I can't tell because her face is away from me, but I figured she was young from her athletic-looking figure.

"I'm sorry." (Makoto)

She turns to face me.

"Pay it no mind Guest-sama." (Maid)

Face of a crocodile.

"Please, feel free to eat this food." (Crocodile Maid)

「ワニいた!」 "There's a crocodile!" (Makoto)

"Oh my, you knew the name of this Juanita, Guest-sama?" (Juanita)

Ehhh??

...

I ended up not eating a lot from the breakfest.

It was a Western-style 'continental breakfast' with a lot of salty, sugary foods.

"Honestly, it's no good." (Makoto)

I complained to Juanita who just bowed her head.

She didn't make the food so I felt more bold to complain about it.

Western food is just inferior to Japanese breakfast.

Even if we're talking about instant food like chikin ramen, it's still going to taste better and be healthier than pancake, egg, and bacon.

I'd do anything for some rice and miso but it can't be helped.

Despite her scary face, Juanita is a sweet old lady. She's been working at the Olympia Village for 50 years. That's a kind of dedication I can admire!

She and most of the staff do not live in the village itself. They take a special shuttle to an employee camp on a small island floating below Olympia Skywalk. Access to the dock is through a basement in the Grand Hotel.

"But I thought the village was open 24 hours? Why does everyone have to leave for the evening?" (Makoto)

"Makoto-sama, the village is not open 24 hours. We do not have enough staff to meet such a demanding schedule, and the number of adventurers who come here is too low to support our labor." (juanita)

Adventurers.

The NPC-term for "player characters" in Sugar Maple.

Players begin as "classless" on the tutorial area, Horn Island.

They're expected to learn the game mechanics before taking the small airship down to Newberry Island, where the first leg of the game takes place. Horn Island is only accessible by classless and cannot be returned to once players touchdown on Newberry Island.

I remember reading about the scrapped plans in a blog post a decade after Sugar Maple was shut down.

From the number of docks in Olympia Skywalk, a idea for the game was to have the airship route from Horn Island to Olympia Skywalk as the true "end game".

Hidden beneath Horn Island were many legendary, poweful monsters, with the final dungeon being beneath the island.

But after game development was abandoned, with only a skeleton staff to maintain the servers, this plot line wouldn't come to pass.

Instead, shortly before the server shut down, Wisent had Horn Island "fall" onto Newberry Island, destroying the world and releasing all these monsters onto an unprepared, charred husk.

I thought the entire idea was stupid as hell. The game was already dying, and just making it impossible to play with many end-stage bosses as ordinary encounters is guaranteed to kill interest in the game.

It was impossible to progress past Goering Peaks, which ws solidly in the "mid game" plan of development, so there was no way individual players lounging on Newberry Isle around level 80 were going to handle the end stage bosses, who required full parties with levels over 2000 to beat.

"..." (???)

"Ah? Er, what were we talking about?" (Makoto)

"The other Guest-sama has awoken, and she's approaching us as we speak." (Juanita)

Other Guest-sama?

I recall the beautiful body in the bed next to me.

Bracing myself for the possibility of seeing the woman walking naked around the inn, I turn around.

A stunningly beautiful adventurer, clad in a purpe skirt, with a chainmail bra and thigh-high brown socks, descends from the second floor.

I instantly recognize her as both the beautiful bedmate, and my former boss

"Amane!" (Makoto)