Academy's Silver Gatekeeper

“Aaah!”

- Eek haha, that’s Madcat’s scream

- What is it? Another fight?

- Clover, what’s going on?

“Ugh, for real. I told her I’m streaming, so keep it down.”

Seo Jaehyeon rubbed his forehead and glanced at the chat.

Normally, mentioning other streamers was against the rules, but they bent it slightly for Madcat because she was his sister. Any commotion in her stream always spilled over here.

“Did she lose again?”

- Yup

- She got stomped

“She stayed up late trying to get into promotion matches, and she failed again?”

- Yup

- Annihilated

- Their mid-laner blew the game wide open

He had told her not to go mid. He wasn’t clueless, either. He was a former pro. He had no idea why she insisted on mid so stubbornly.

- By the way, that mid-laner was definitely not from that rank

- The moves and skillshots were insane

- There’s no way it was a normal local player

- 

Seo Jaehyeon’s expression sharpened at the mention of a sniper, smurfing, and stomping weaker players. As a streamer and former pro, that raised a lot of red flags.

Sniping was destructive for any broadcast. The sniper had fun, but the streamer and other viewers got annoyed. Some streamers even covered their queue screens to avoid it.

Madcat was a new gaming streamer, so it might be a bit more lenient, but as soon as Seo Jaehyeon started his own streams, he was constantly hounded by snipers.

Smurfing was even worse than sniping in his eyes, especially because he was a former pro-gamer.

People who kept newcomers out of the game ultimately destroyed it. Even if the player base was huge, it would eventually rot. They forced everyone into the same repetitive environment until it withered and died.

He was reminded of how furious it made him to see people cackling about crushing lower-skilled players.

“Guys, did it really look like he's smurfing? You’re sure it was a second account made for stomping?”

- Yes

- Madcat wouldn’t complain like that for no reason

- Their movement and skillshots were insane, and they had perfect vision control

- Impossible to be a local

He wondered what to do. Typically, you were supposed to ignore other streams. However, if someone was sniping, smurfing, and stomping noobs, it was hard to overlook.

Seo Jaehyeon folded his arms and hesitated, then grabbed his phone.

“…Yeah, it’s me. Send me an edited replay later. The mid-laner from your Bronze match. My viewers say there’s no way that was a local.”

- Haha, they’re in the same house but still talking by phone

- True siblings

- Couldn’t he just go in person?

While chatting with his sister, he got the user’s ID and started looking it up on a records site.

Tap, tap—

“What’s this…?”

It was not what he expected. Red lines everywhere, then a few spots of blue, then red again. The KDA was all over the place.

This ID didn’t look like a quick alt account. Some details didn’t fit if it was a fresh purchase for smurfing.

From a pro-gamer’s standpoint, it was confusing.

The match history looked normal enough

- Maybe nothing special

The viewers who looked up the ID themselves agreed that nothing about it stood out.

- Just your average Bronze-Silver record

- Could be an account someone bought, then used to stomp

- Would they really buy an account for that?

Stranger things had happened. Seo Jaehyeon had encountered countless bizarre players when he was a pro.

He had met players who wanted everyone to lose with them, or who purposely threw after a lead just to see the game reversed. There were also those who deliberately bought low-rank accounts to mess around on. There were more indescribable trolls out there, too many to count.

“Huh.”

He checked his viewer count, which hovered around seven or eight hundred. He decided it wasn’t worth publicly dissecting the entire replay in front of everyone.

“Folks, I’ll look at the replay later on my own. After all, it’s a family matter.”

People wondered why he would do that, but he ignored them and focused back on his stream.

He did feel a tiny twinge of pity for his sister, who had failed her promotion yet again…

- Game found!

…But he was also starting his own promotion match right now.

- Right, Clover is on a Grandmaster promo tonight

- Indeed

- Predicting both siblings fail promos on the same day, haha

His pro pride was on the line. He couldn’t settle for anything under Grandmaster. He had dropped to Diamond before, and they had teased him for a month by calling him “Dia.” Master was unstable, so Grandmaster was the safe zone.

When the queue popped, he closed every window, including his record search tab.

Match History Search: PleaseLetMeSilver

*

“Hey, did you watch Madcat’s stream yesterday?”

“You mean that chaotic Silver promo? I caught it in the VOD. It was wild.”

“That sniper absolutely crushed her.

“You sure it was a sniper and not a smurf?”

“I’m positive. The play was off the charts.”

Some Academy students nearby chattered with excitement.

They were talking about a stream. I knew nothing about it. It was apparently someone named Madcat, which I had never heard before, though I had an idea it involved a game.

“Speaking of which, I did play Ranked last night…”

It was a first for me. The match felt so smooth that I couldn’t believe it.

My skillshots, which normally missed, landed almost every single time. My reflexes were faster, and I had absolute clarity on which decisions to make.

That wasn’t all. Bits and pieces of random game tutorials I had watched on YouTube suddenly came into focus like a map in my mind.

I knew exactly where to get vision and what to do with it. I began predicting the enemy’s routes, forced them to waste time, or forced them to recall by depleting their health.

“I’m definitely not that good.”

I was so locked in that the enemy base crumbled before I realized it. My final scoreboard looked like I had singlehandedly destroyed the match.

My first guess was the Gatekeeper trait, except this wasn’t happening at the Academy, nor was it for an official exam. I had no clue why it would activate.

[ Next stop is Academy Station, Academy Station. ]

And so began another grueling day.

Even though it was a routine I had repeated countless times, commuting always felt like torture.

From the moment I opened my eyes in the morning until one minute before I clocked out, it was hell all the way through.

I even had nightmares last night. I dreamed that as soon as I arrived, Jung Yuhyeon attacked me.

Except in the dream, he was a regular citizen lodging a complaint, and I was a powerless civil servant. He insulted me and yelled, and I had to stand there politely.

“Did your parents leave you behind?”

He threw that low blow again, and I got so mad that I punched him, but suddenly my boss replaced him.

I got reamed out for a public official using violence against a citizen, for tarnishing the reputation of other civil servants. It went on and on until I finally woke up.

To make it worse, I woke up twenty minutes before my alarm went on. That dream had been horrifying. I still got chills thinking about it.

“I hope he doesn’t pick a fight with me the moment I walk in.”

It wasn’t impossible, which made me anxious. I scanned my surroundings before stepping through the Academy gates. If that jerk were around, I would probably feel his hostility from a mile away.

“He’s not here.”

It made sense. A guy who flaunted his superiority wouldn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he got demoted to Bronze. If he did pick another fight, he’d look for somewhere more secluded.

“Examiner Baek Seojin!”

At least I had one small piece of good news. Turning around, I saw Kim Suhyeon approaching.

“You’re here early today.”

“I just arrived.”

She walked up quietly and stood beside me, as if she wanted to head in together.

It felt nice but added a little pressure. Her background, her looks, and even her raw ability were all originally very impressive. Her talents were just stifled by her inferiority.

Villains had forcibly triggered that potential, making her go down a dark path. I was trying to open it up the right way.

Activating Third Eye.

◎ Kim Suhyeon

A Genius consumed by Inferiority

◎ Details

All abilities are currently lowered.

If she fails to escape her sense of inferiority soon, it could cause permanent damage to her powers.

A flawed awakening may trigger catastrophic consequences.

◎ Alert

A Seed has been Planted.

Seed Type - Wrath.

Nothing had changed from yesterday, and that only worried me more. I couldn’t figure out what this seed was, or what “fury” meant in this context. My heart felt uneasy.

“Um, Examiner…”

“Suhyeon.”

We both spoke at the same time. I asked her to go first, but she quickly shook her head and insisted I speak, so I went ahead.

“Hey, would you consider taking the Silver exam soon?”

“…Me?”

“Yes.”

“You mean for me to take the exam with you as my proctor?”

I nodded, and she looked troubled, trailing off mid-sentence.

“A… I’m… not good enough for that yet, I think…”

“There’s no set requirement for challenging the exam. Sometimes, you just have to try.”

“Still…”

“You won’t know what you’re lacking unless you jump in and see for yourself.”

You couldn’t take the exam unless you applied. I couldn’t just point at her and say, “You, come test right now.”

Lee Hyunwoo would definitely challenge himself again with frantic determination, but Suhyeon was a different case. If I didn’t push her, she might never take that step.

“I… can I have a bit more time? I’m sure I’d just embarrass myself…”

Her voice trembled as she said it, and she looked so uneasy that I felt bad for her.

“All right. Then how about next week? Let’s try it once next week.”

“Yes… all right…”

It made me feel like a villain forcing her into something.