CHAPTER 42: FATE WALK

Back then, upon reaching her 10-star evolution, Marshmallow unlocked a skill so absurdly powerful it almost didn’t feel real.

As Claire’s mouse hovered over the description, her jaw dropped.

"Oh shit..."

This wasn’t just strong—it was downright broken!

Legendary Tier Skill: Fate Walk

Attribute: Divine

Description: With this skill, Marshmallow can enter the Space of Timeless Fate using her divine power—a mysterious domain suspended between endless possible futures. From within, she may select the most optimal future and bring it into reality.

Mana Cost: 150,000

Cooldown: 100 days

Claire’s eyes went wide.

This skill... the possibilities were endless. Absolutely game-breaking!

For example: if Marshmallow was about to be struck by a fatal attack—something so fast and devastating it should have been impossible to dodge—she could activate Fate Walk and simply pick the future where she survived.

Or, offensively, she could guarantee her strongest attack landed with flawless accuracy!

"YES! Marshmallow, looks like time to change your build!!" Claire blurted, almost cackling.

Up until now, Marshmallow’s gear had all been focused on one thing: stacking critical rate and critical damage at the most optimized ratio. A safe, standard damage-dealer setup.

But with Fate Walk in the mix...

Perhaps... just maybe...

The legendary One Punch Cat build could finally become reality! She could say ’fuck you all’ to crit rate and stack crit damage instead!

MWAHAHAHAAHA!

"Oh wait!" she gasped.

"HOLD ON! WAIT A MINUTE!"

"That skill stone, do I still HAVE it???"

Without a second thought, she pressed her hotkey, opened her inventory and scrolled furiously.

And there it was!

That cursed little thing!

The so-called top-tier trash legendary skill stone!

At first glance, it seemed completely worthless. A "legendary" that nobody wanted, the butt of countless player jokes online. Claire had gotten it ages ago during a dungeon event—lucky, or maybe unlucky, depending on how you looked at it. For months, it had been gathering dust, forgotten in the deepest corner of her inventory. Nobody in the marketplace would buy it at her listed price, so she had simply kept it, treating it like a rare but useless collector’s item.

But now... now things were different.

Her lips curled into a grin as she hovered her mouse over the stone.

This "worthless" skill would soon become part of the most overpowered combo in this game’s history!

Deathly Critical Conversion!

Tier: Legendary

Description: Sacrifice a random portion of your magical beast’s current Crit Rate (up to 99%). For every 1% of Crit Rate lost, gain five times that value in Crit Damage—for a single attack or skill!

At first glance, most players had written it off as garbage. Why would anyone willingly throw away their Crit Rate? Without Crit Rate, you couldn’t even trigger a critical hit in the first place!

But with Fate Walk... that weakness turned into absolute madness.

And this was only the beginning.

Stack it with some of the strongest buffs in the game, like—

Blood Overdrive

Tier: Epic

Effect: For 5 seconds, increase all damage output by 100%. After the buff ends, enter [Fatigue]

, a debuff that reduces all stats by 50% for 2 minutes.

Glass Cannon

Tier: Epic

Effect: For 10 seconds, reduce Defense by 80% but increase damage output by 200%.

And finally, top it off with Marshmallow’s strongest offensive move:

Marshmallow Annihilation Slash!

The synergy would be insane!

With Fate Walk ensuring she could always pick the "perfect future," Marshmallow could line everything up flawlessly—the buffs, the skill, and the conversion—landing the ultimate critical hit of death even when her Crit Rate was reduced to a measly 1%!

"DAMN!!!" Claire’s jaw dropped.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine the sheer numbers behind that combo.

Her hands shook as she opened up the massive damage calculation Excel sheet that was painstakingly built by some insane Thiscord theorycrafters for Arventia Online.

Her eyes scanned the formulas... the multipliers stacked... the numbers kept climbing... climbing... until—

"WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAH!! THAT’S A LOT OF DAMAGE!!!"

Claire’s scream practically shook the room.

So many freaking numbers! They didn’t even fit on one line. The digits stretched across the Excel sheet like an endless highway of destruction.

She rubbed her eyes, leaned in close, then leaned back out, and even double... no, triple checked her input just in case she had typed something wrong. Maybe she’d added an extra zero by mistake? Or misclicked a cell?

But no. Everything was correct. Perfectly correct.

"Oh God..." Claire gasped, her whole body shivering with excitement. "That would literally one-shot a freaking 9-Star Dungeon Boss!!"

Her heart raced faster.

She could already imagine it—Marshmallow standing tall, cute as hell, but her aura as cold as death. Her claws gleamed with divine power, and then—SLASH!!! A single slash wiping out a colossal dungeon boss in an instant!

Claire clenched her fists so tight her knuckles popped.

"I can’t freaking wait to try her out!!!"

...

However, something ain’t right.

"Tch... but the cooldown is a freaking 100 days though." Claire slumped back in her chair, tapping her desk in annoyance. "Is using it on just one boss fight really worth it?"

Given that she was grinding dungeons over a hundred times a day, the answer was obvious—probably not. The payoff just didn’t match the wait.

"Why the hell did the devs slap a freaking 100-day cooldown on this skill?!" she grumbled, glaring at the description window like it had personally offended her.

But then—her breath hitched.

Her eyes widened.

A chill slithered down her spine.

Wait.

No way...

No fucking way...

That was when it hit her. The terrifying, glorious truth.

This skill... wasn’t just useful for combat.

No—

It could be used to manipulate the most sacred, untouchable game mechanic of them all!

RNG!

Random. Number. Generator!!!

"Holy fuck!" Claire almost fell out of her chair.

Her brain spun into overdrive, sparks practically flying out of her ears. "I could use it to get insane rare drops... or even force-learn skills... or—or—wait—manipulate my own summoning chances?!"

The possibilities piled up in her head like fireworks.

Guaranteed rare loot.

Guaranteed skill unlocks.

Guaranteed legendary summons.

Basically, with Fate Walk, she could bend the game itself to her will—turning chance into certainty.

"Oh damn..." she whispered, clutching her head, half-crazed with excitement. "Haha... haha... Did I... just freaking break the game?!"

...

Well, unfortunately, Claire never got the chance to test it.

Because right after evolving Marshmallow, she died.