Chapter 2: The Echo Glitch
There's a certain point in every MMO where the devs stop caring.
Not because they're lazy—no, these guys are gods of their own twisted little universes. But sometimes… they forget.
They forget a potion recipe from three expansions ago that still references a deprecated ingredient.
They forget a skill's formula that was never patched in the Level 80 rebalance.
They forget that the [Formula Master] class even existed.
And that's where I live. In the space between updates. The bugs nobody caught. The leftovers.
I was at Mastery 5 now. I had unlocked two Formula Slots and the basic Skill View. My inventory was full of potions that ranged from:
Cursed Apple Juice (Heals you but makes your character cry uncontrollably)
Flickering Oil (Explodes. Sometimes. Or crashes your HUD)
Diluted Resurrection Water (Revives rats. Only rats.)
The game world around me still treated me like trash. But under the surface?
I was digging into the game's guts with a rusty spoon.
Sootheel Forest – Rat Den
"Why the hell are you farming rats?"
I looked up. A Level 12 Swordsman was standing over me. His armor gleamed with paid cosmetics. His pet wolf had a monocle. He looked at me with the specific kind of disgust reserved for free-to-play users.
"You know you get 1 XP for these, right?" he sneered. "You're wasting your time, noob."
I was crouched next to a campfire, whispering sweet nothings to a pile of rat teeth and empty bottles.
"Testing theories," I replied, tossing another ingredient into the pot.
A puff of green smoke burped out of the cauldron.
[Potion Created: Rat Soul Infusion]
[Effect: Unknown]
The Swordsman scoffed and walked away. "Idiot."
I ignored him. He didn't know what I knew.
Back in the Closed Beta, players abused a broken mechanic involving "stack growth." If a skill increased based on conditions—like burn stacks—you could force a multiplier with timing glitches.
The devs patched it.
Mostly.
But the mechanic was still alive in one forgotten ingredient: Sulfuric Nectar.
And guess what I found inside the Level 3 Rat drop pool?
Yep. Sulfuric Nectar.
I checked my Skill View.
[Alchemy Theory: Soul Echo Reactions]
[Mastery Check: Passed]
I drank the Rat Soul Infusion.
The screen flashed green.
[Warning: You have consumed a glitched item. Effects may vary.]
My vision warped. The "Code View" I had unlocked earlier expanded. I didn't just see the math anymore; I saw the timing.
[Hidden Parameters Unlocked]
(Stability • Feedback Loop • Trigger Delay)
"…Oh hell yes."
I could now see the internal parts of skills—not just what they did, but when the server executed them.
That meant I could abuse the timing.
I crafted a new formula using the Rat Soul data and a stolen scroll of Flame Spit.
[Formula: Flame_Spit]
[Loop: Echo_Cough (Interrupt x6)]
It was a bug I remembered from the old days. If a skill gets interrupted mid-animation by a status effect (like coughing), the server sometimes forgets to cancel the damage, but queues up the next cast anyway.
I stood up.
I needed to test this. And I needed 50 Gold for my rent.
I looked toward the center of the forest. The Swordsman with the monocle was currently fighting the Iron-Bristle Boar (Level 8 Elite).
And he was losing.
"Heal! Heal me!" the Swordsman screamed at his pet wolf (which, being an AI, did nothing but look dapper).
The Boar, a massive beast of metal and fury, rammed the Swordsman.
-300 HP.
The Swordsman was stunned. One more hit and he was dead.
I walked out of the bushes.
"Need a hand?" I asked.
The Swordsman glared at me through his bloodied screen. "Run away, trash tier! It'll kill you!"
"I don't think so."
I held up my hand. My palm glowed with the unstable, glitched formula.
I activated the skill.
[Casting: Flame Spit]
My character opened his mouth to breathe fire.
But then, the Rat Soul Infusion kicked in. My character convulsed and sneezed violently.
Achoo.
The animation broke. The fire didn't come out.
But the server thought it did.
And because the animation was interrupted, the server tried to "fix" it by casting it again. And again. And again.
[Trigger Loop Detected]
[Multiplying Output x12]
My character didn't breathe a stream of fire.
He vomited a literal sun.
A condensed, blinding sphere of white-hot data erupted from my hand. It wasn't just fire; it was twelve instances of fire occupying the same coordinate at the exact same millisecond.
The sound was deafening. A glitchy, distorted bass boost that shook the ground.
BOOM.
The Iron-Bristle Boar didn't even have time to squeal. The heat was so intense it bypassed the armor calculation entirely.
The Boar vanished. Vaporized.
The trees behind it caught fire.
The ground turned to glass.
[Critical Hit!]
[Overkill Damage Calculation]
[You have slain Iron-Bristle Boar (Elite)]
A loot drop clattered onto the glass: [Monster Core (Gold)].
I walked over, picked it up, and turned to the Swordsman.
He was sitting on the ground, staring at the smoking crater where the boss used to be. His monocle had fallen off.
"What..." he stammered. "What class is that? Mage? Warlock?"
I pocketed the 2 Gold (20 bucks secured, 480 to go).
"No," I said, grinning as the 'Suspicious Activity' warning flashed in the corner of my eye.
"I'm a Formula Master."