Alix Finder, the Head Moderator, immediately gets to work on extracting data about the two of them.

First thing first, the team research where they are within the game, at the moment.

“Hm, look like they registered themselves at Tutoria, the city of beginning huh.”

“Aw, look at them! Traveling the city together, trying out local food, punching the living shit out of local thug...How adorable Marigold is! The way she smiles looking at Roadside Rose, who is just as gorgeous, is drop-deadly adorable as well~~. ”

Ignoring the clamoring of the peanut gallery at the back, the Head Moderator look at their travel log closely, checking to see any unusual points.

“Hm...doesn't look like they're attempting to do any hidden quest, or buying up gears from any collaboratives, or trying to exploit any glitches. Aside from immediately jumping into the training dojo, they don’t do anything unusual.” (Alex)

“...You sure sir? Don't they seem to be acting weird against the dummy?" (Mod employee)

“What is it? If they just punch the living shit out of them, it’s not that unu-.” (Alex)

Immediately after glancing over to see what his fellow Moderator was talking about, he have his eyes slightly raised in confusion, over what happened on the screen.

“...And there! You look exquisite!” (Marigold)

Marigold exclaimed, after she finished fixing up the straw dummy that lay tattered on the ground before, using the straw she borrowed from the dojo.

“Well, too bad they don't have any spare cloths lying around, so I can't dress you up properly as well."

She talk with a tint of disappointment, disappointed that she can't improve upon them further at the moment. Despite that, the dummy she fixed up before her not only looks new, but looks even better than it could be. With its tidy and straight strands of straw binding as tight and thickly with each other as possible, the perfect symmetrical shape of its simple straw body, and how its faceless feature seems to exude a sense of hardiness and reliability, it was like they're looking at the platonic shape of a straw dummy itself.

As she propped it to stand up once again, as it seems to shine with a golden glow, she wave her hand toward it slightly.

“Well, I will leave you up to it, then. Just wait here until I finished training with your peers, okay?” (Marigold)

With a bright smile on her face, she then ran toward her group once again, as they’re setting themselves up for training with another dummy.

As the moderators (+peanut gallery) watch the sisters (+ little dragon) performing a three-woman mid-air combo chain, the Head Moderator scratches his head in wonder.

“What was Marigold doing earlier? Why would she fix up that random dummy in the corner?" (Alex)

“Not just fixed up, you heathen fools. Our glorious Marigold also returns them to a state even more perfect than itself! To bless the poor dummy, into a partner even more reliable than before, show how much love and infinite kind-Ouch!!" (Carana)

“Haha, sorry, don’t mind us blabbering our mouths.” (Head Chief)

“?”

As they glance back from watching the Head Chief bonking away at the peanut gallery, they take notice of what she said before.

“Oh yeah, that’s another strange point as well. To fixing up that dummy is one thing, but to needlessly remaking it into an EX-rank straw dummy as well…” (Mod)

“Wait, EX-Rank?” (Alex)

“It said over there, Head Moderator.” (Mod)

Platonic Straw Dummy

Rank: EX (Growth)

A simple Straw Dummy, reshape into the most ideal and perfect state a dummy can be. It's filled with a renewed understanding of its purpose for existence, and an overwhelming sense of pride.

“She even gets the title of [Grandmaster Craftman] (for making an EX object), [Genius Beyond The Age] (for doing it at level 1), and [Friend with the Dummy], sir." (Mod)

“Hah...of course she is." (Alex)

Seeing the description of the newly-remade dummy and the report of his moderator, the Head Moderator’s head is filled with even more confusion and headache, as he pinched his forehead.

“Okay, set aside the fact that we're dealing with another Irregular who apparently has the hand of god for a second... Is there any hidden quest getting triggered by such over-the-top crafting action?" (Alex)

“No sir, not as far as we know. According to our database, this is just another random dummy inside the training dojo.” (Mod)

“Look into the database once more! There must be some hidden chain of quests we didn't know about…" (Alex)

As they're clamoring for the answer, only the peanut gallery has an inkling of what is going on.

The Head Peanut Gallery, especially, knows what it is. After all, he was the one who helped set it up.

"(Treating a dummy as something alive...Treating it with respect...Fixing it up with the intended purpose of its design…That would be the prerequisites to meet a certain god…)” (Head Chief)

"([It's 99.9999% certain that what Marigold does has nothing to do with it though. Most certainly, it's just her kindness.])" (Laplace)

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“(I suspect that it is the case, knowing who they’re...Tsk, just by acting like their usual, those three can shake up the common sense of the world as easily as they breathe...Tell me, are they dangerous?)” (Head Chief)

“([If what you mean is if they’re jeopardizing my internal system, then the answer is no. That I can 99.999% be sure of.])” (Laplace)

“(Oh? And why is that?)” (Head Chief)

“([This world can fully handle them and their irregularity, according to my internal simulations...at least, as long as they stay what they are.])” (Laplace)

"(...Then I will bet on them completely making this world flip upside down, then (reading way too many LN to not suspect that). So, what is the chance of them being completely troublesome and tedious to our team?)” (Head Chief)

"([100% certainty.])" (Laplace)

“(Fuck...Well, at least this time, their mess is his own problem to deal with (evil laugh))” (Head Chief)

Making an evil chuckle again, the Head Moderator glance back, hearing him smiling evilly for a bit.

“Head Chief, do you know something about this?” (Alex)

"Why should I tell ya? That is company's secrets. Besides, haven't I been magnanimous enough already?" (Head Chief)

“Tch…” (Alex)

After searching for a while, and seeing that they can't make any more headway into this, the moderators began giving up.

"Sir...we have triple-checked it already, but there is no interaction we knew off that they could be trying to go for." (Mod)

“I know that...and they are still staying over at the training dojo right?” (Alex)

“Yes sir...they’re now practicing their punch barrage independently from each other, sir.” (Mod)

"Then that means they aren't going to go out of the place for now...Let's check their registration process, next." (Alex)

The reason he was asking for permission to see the user's private data, is because he want to check how they register their character.

For if they wanted to obtain such an absurd level of skill, they must do it in a place where they can freely test out their character in anyway they want, and receive results out of it.

However, the user's name, Personality Skill, real body shape, and myriad other sensitive information are also laid within the registration process itself, and as such is fallen under the protection of the Privacy Clause.

And as such, he has no other choice but to request permission, if he truly wanted to dig to the bottom of this problem.

“Hm...so their name is Yukari Hanami and Maria Art, huh…” (Alex)

First thing first, he's checking over their real name, as well as their real identity. As the moderator team is looking through their profile, the peanut gallery behind them is sweating bullets. Even the Head Chief himself also finds himself clenching his fist, almost readying his clipboard to do some unspeakable thing to his memory…

“Hm...who are they? They aren't on our list of employees and testers." (Mod)

“They aren't in any of our list of independent contractors, or practically anyone we invited into our internal process. No famous ranker, no celebrity big or small, no government officials, etc…"

“As far as the company is concerned...They have nothing to do with us in anyway whatsoever, except as a pair of players?”

Hearing that assessment, the entire team breathes a sigh of relief. Only Carana is looking miffed for some reason, but that's already the usual thing.

“Hmph, if they truly have nothing to do with us, then I am truly wondering what is the point of invading our player’s privacy…” Trying to be hard-faced, Head Chief is coming over to chastise him for wasting company's hour. In response, he scoffed.

“Hmph, trying to avoid me not exposing your secret employee, I see.” (Alex)

“?? What do you mean?” (Head Chief)

Acting confused (while being genuinely confused), he asked him.

“Even trying to make a smug face with me...Look at their profile that our company apparently “collected”.” (Alex)

Looking over at the profile they have already read before, Head Moderator continued.

“Rich princess turn master swordswoman? Genius Orphan? Friend with Godiva, the founder of Cassandra Foundation? Sworn blood sisters? What’s with all this hack-writing fanfic OC bullshit I see before me?” (Alex)

“Fucking hell, if you try to fake a profile, at least make it realistic for fuck sake! Who the heck would buy this chuuni stuff.”

Getting chastised back for no reason, the Head Chief is keeping a straight face, secretly aggrieving inside.

“Hey, don’t you think it could be true instead? Like, they could be doing all of that (though secretly they’re even more bonker…)” (Head Chief)

“Ha! If those profiles were true, I will eat my own socks! What's with Maria being a famous idol anyway…" (Alex)

“...Hm? What do you mean, Maria isn’t the most precious of idols?” (Carana)

Suddenly, Carana chimed in, releasing an eerie aura on her own.

"What? I admit she's cute and adorable, and that she's an Irregular and all that...But it takes more than just two of that to compete in that market nowadays…" (Alex)

"Really? Haven't you checked on Youtube lately? Like, in the past month or so?” (Carana)

(Hey, why the heck do you mention that!? What if he notices…!) (Head Chief)

Carana continued to bug him, with a face as if she is going to haunt him as a ghost. Seeing that, Head Chief is breaking out in cold sweat again, fearing that he would find some way to connect the dots.

“...Heh, in the past month? IN THE PAST FUCKING MONTH!?” (Alex)

Instead, he immediately lashed out at them, his face as red as a tomato in sheer rage. His anger even gives Head Chief a pause, as he unintentionally steps back half a step.

“In This Past Fucking Month! We all have been getting stuck in this fucking room for this past fucking month, thanks to the mess those two make!” (Alex)

“Do you have any fucking idea how big of a mess those two did to the game! Creation of an entire fucking new zone full of broken items and materials, leading to an economy crash! The endless complaint of players after players after seeing that entire mission lines get snapped out of existence! Endless list of "glitches" and "bugs" that we have to personally take care of, and fucking most of them isn't even that anyway, so it's impossible to be fixed! The goddamn unreasonable demand of the higher-up asking us to find them, despite them literally just spontaneously appearing and disappearing in the flash with literally no trace!"

“Soooo fucking sorry we didn’t watch Youtube for this past month, because we’re all fucking busy burning our retina from gluing our face on the screen night after night after day after night! Do you know how many of us here are practically married to this room, unable to get out of work 24/7!? Fucking hell, if it wasn't for the ventilation and service bot which come in daily, we literally would have faint to our own sweat and tear!"

His scream of the soul verberates throughout the room, resonating with everyone within this room, being all too familiar with their pain.

So much so that even Carana momentarily retracts her eerie feeling.

So much so, that even Head Chief feels bad for him, as he pats on his shoulder.

“Um, sorry I guess…” (Head Chief)

"Sorry about what!? Did you guys do that?" (Alex)

Flicking his hand away, Head Moderator continued to yell at him. For a moment, bitter tear can be seen pooling up in the corner of his eyes.

“Of course not…” (Head Chief)

"Then don't feel fucking sorry, we don't need your pity for this! Tch, now even these guys feel sorry for us...make a fucking better game if you actually did, for fuck sake…" (Alex)

"(Anger mark) Okay, now that's a bit much…" (Head Chief)

“Fucking hell, now after all of that shit was over it, and we thought we can all get a rest, these three show up like a fucking rash and making us itchy all over…When I found the proof that you and your team have something to do with it, then you will really be sorry.” (Alex)

Spatting out his word against him, the Head Moderator immediately went back to work, watching through the footage of their registration process.

Thanks to that, all the goodwill and pity the entire peanut gallery have over them completely evaporates, with Carana having that haunting feeling all over her again.

Meanwhile, feeling the same pissing-off feeling as the team, Head Chief once again has a secret talk with Laplace.

“(So, when you’re saying that there is absolutely no problem, do you mean this?)” (Head Chief)

"([Yes. Due to the stress and fatigue of having to deal with the chaos those two players have made, he has failed to realize any sort of connection between them and the new players, as you have been afraid. The number mismatch between 2, and 2 plus their pet, also is a factor.])" (Laplace)

“(‘Realize’ huh...So you do admit it then.)” (Head Chief)

"([?Admit what? If you're talking about whether the new players are those same players 1 month ago, there're only a 5% similarity between them.])" (Laplace)

“(Heh?...Tell me, what is the similarity between the new player, and humanity in general?)” (Head Chief)

“([Around 0.001%])” (Laplace)

“(So, to recap, they’re 5000 times more similar to them, than to actual human beings?)" (Head Chief)

“([Affirmative.])” (Laplace)

“(And you said they aren’t the same person?)” (Head Chief)

“(I said they aren’t the same person, yes.)” (Laplace)

‘Since when did Laplace learn to be that cheeky…' Head Chief thinks to himself, before continuing to watch.