Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Bronze in the Platinum Lobby
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The next day.
Early in the morning, Soo-hyuk left the dorm to tackle the next trial.
The spot where Soo-hyuk fired up his stream was the fourth-floor trial arena.
In front of the white portal. He switched on the broadcast and waited a moment, and viewers started pouring in.
Waiting time: five minutes.
Once that passed, the viewer count surpassed seven thousand.
And at that moment.
The real stream kicked off.
"Suhyuk here. Hello, everyone."
The broadcast began with his signature opener.
A decent crowd tuned in for the early morning slot. By now, Soo-hyuk was used to acknowledging the chat.
As viewer numbers grew, so did the frequency and amount of donations right at the start.
"Thanks for the thousand points, ILoveLeeSuhyuk. Yeah, heading up again from today. GreatManWonjae..."
A brief window of sponsor messages and responses.
And among them.
This was the perfect question to kick off the stream—the goal for this trial.
The viewers lit up with the hottest reactions.
Simple, but that was the core identity of streamer Lee Soo-hyuk.
Clearing the Lightning Trial, conquering Thunder Cave. Soo-hyuk had passed every trial by doing what others couldn't.
Viewers clearly craved these wild feats from his streams most of all.
But.
"Well... this section's kinda boring, so."
Unlike other trials, the fourth floor didn't lend itself to special challenges.
"Nothing to do but climb as fast as possible."
Lots of disappointed reactions. Soo-hyuk wanted to live up to their expectations, but it couldn't be helped.
Other floors were one thing, but the fourth-floor trial left little room for player creativity. Even Unhyang and John Tail had lamented challenging it during their stream's growth phase.
In a way, it was prime content, yet totally mismatched with Soo-hyuk's style.
Step-.
He stepped forward into the portal, and a message rang out.
The surroundings were still a white void.
The trial hadn't started yet. Messages continued.
Strength drained from his entire body. His stats halved, and even item effects were slashed in two.
Win matches for points, climb ratings to Challenger.
A straightforward, tedious grind. Shortest: half a year. Longest: a lifetime, and some never made it.
This ranked trial was infamous for that.
'Still feels like crap even on repeat.'
Soo-hyuk frowned at the hollow sensation.
Power that filled his body suddenly cut in half. He'd felt it long ago, but this trial hit players hard from the jump.
Of course.
'Better than waking up in that dumpster with zero stats.'
Thinking he'd died, opening his eyes in trash with all stats lost—that was worse by far.
Whoosh-!
The scenery shifted right then.
The world around him transformed, the air grew different.
A massive circular building loomed ahead. Distant woods spread out, three paths stretching long.
The most common map.
Forest of War.
Allies and enemies' names and ratings displayed. Three players had appeared beside him in white light.
And naturally.
"Bronze?"
"What the hell? Bug?"
"Balance broken?"
They voiced complaints and confusion at Soo-hyuk's mismatched rating.
Viewers were just as baffled.
Ratings weren't just labels. Like Bronze capping stats at 50%, each tier massively altered power.
Silver: 75% of base stats.
Gold: 100%, Platinum: 150%.
Diamond: 200%, double bonus.
Meaning Platinum players held at least triple the edge over Bronze.
Thanks to this—whatever "this" was—the stream's lukewarm vibe ignited instantly.
Soo-hyuk, solo Bronze in a Platinum lobby.
No matter his skill, the system's brutal penalty couldn't be ignored.
What seemed an easy trial flipped to hardcore mode.
Fight enemies, power up, victory.
That was the trial's core.
The issue?
"Ugh, fuck! He's really Bronze?"
The fourth floor was mostly team matches, not solo.
"How's a Bronze in our queue? Worst matchmaking ever!"
The mood soured from the start. A wiry guy glared at Soo-hyuk. "Nile Tool" floated over his head.
"Wait. Isn't that Lee Soo-hyuk?"
The sole woman among the four eyed Soo-hyuk in surprise.
She recognized him.
"Him? That guy's been irrelevant forever."
"No, not that one. Fake Suhyuk."
"Fake Suhyuk?"
"Yeah. The streamer..."
But Nile Tool's expression didn't budge.
"A streamer, huh?"
Plenty of players skipped streams. Heck, more didn't know Soo-hyuk than did.
Only old fans drawn by his Lightning rep.
Streamer or not, Nile Tool cared more about his trial.
"So what? Streamers get a pass to screw us over?"
"We don't know why the bug happened, and he didn't queue the party..."
"Doesn't matter, fuck! Can't carry your weight? You're a troll!"
As Nile fumed uncontrollably.
"If you've got a brain, use it."
Soo-hyuk finally spoke up, fed up.
"What?"
"Thought you'd chill and start, but you'll rage til match end."
"This is all because of you..."
"System's fairer than anyone. If rating-blind you miss the point, just gouge those eyes out."
"What?"
The already tense air thickened.
Teamfight before kickoff wouldn't shock anyone.
The lone woman, Roen, who’d been gauging moods, jumped between them.
"Hey, hey, no fighting among us. We're a team for now."
"Who'd team with this guy—"
"We might face off as enemies someday. Save the beef for then."
Nile scowled but grumbled.
"Doubt that happens."
Still, with a mediator, Nile backed off.
Probably figured clashing hard with a streamer was bad juju.
"How about positions? Anyone got prefs?"
Roen steered things back. Soo-hyuk replied.
"Anywhere's fine."
"Bot for me."
"Mid only."
With inputs in, Roen pondered then said.
"Soo-hyuk, take jungle? You know how, right?"
"Yeah."
Jungle rarely clashed head-on. Roen's pick considered that.
"Bit disadvantaged, but let's win. I believe in your skills, Suhyuk."
Bluntly: just pull your weight.
She wasn't blunt, but didn't trust him either.
Viewers felt the same.
"Doubt he farms jungle right."
Nile's parting jab, thorns even without picking a fight.
Soo-hyuk bit back a retort. More words would drag things out for real.
Final warning.
"Okay, stop fighting and move out. Good luck, Suhyuk."
With Roen's words, the group split to the three paths. Soo-hyuk headed jungle last, alone.
A brief lull hit.
Viewers finally started seriously questioning the situation.
Why was Soo-hyuk slotted alone into a Platinum queue?
Of course.
Pure speculation—no one cracked the system's intent.
But one certainty united them.
Overcome this gap, score would be massive.