Ever since Maple and Sally had defeated Silver Wings, the admins had been regularly
checking in on them.
"Maple and Sally cleared the doppelga ngers!"
"Ah… yeah, those wouldn't be enough to stop them."
"Really? I mean, I intended them to be pretty dang tough!" said the man who'd
designed that boss fight.
He'd at least been confident the outcome wasn't a foregone conclusion.
"Lemme check on the others… I put doppelga ngers all over the map, so… Oh, here are
the fight records!"
He tapped a few keys and put the image up on the big screen.
A player with a spear was fighting a greatsword-wielding doppelga nger.
"Equipment and level… mid-tier."
"So about right for this difficulty level."
One eye on their own work, the admins watched the battle play out.
The longer the fight went, the more tired the player got—and the more the tides
turned against him.
The doppelga nger's attacks started slipping past his defenses, and ultimately a
powerful blow cleaved the player in two, and he vanished in a burst of light.
"That's what I'm talking about! The copies should be several steps stronger than the
actual players! If Maple and Sally beat them easily, that's because they're good."
"Both fights lasted ages… Maple was one thing, but Sally should have worn herself out
long before it ended. I mean, she never stops moving…"
"If you want to tire Maple out, you've gotta make her move. She's ridiculous even if
she's just standing still!"
"And those tamed monsters are gonna keep getting stronger… What do we do?"
"Uh… I'm working on it…"
The other player's death had reminded everyone what "normal" looked like and drove
home how OP the girls really were.
"Keep us posted on anything weird that happens… and anything Maple-related."
"Will do."
And that meant the admins were forced to keep permanent tabs on them.