I Can Copy Curses

Orion and the masked girl found themselves in the middle of Market Street after going through the door Kyle led to.

Looking around, Orion saw various people walking down the streets, buying things from the stalls lined up along the streets, and many others just stood at the center of Market Street, ready to go to mine their daily mana crystals.

It was such a bustling atmosphere, but he didn't know how they would feel if they knew that all of them were nothing but a power source for some damn magic circle.

The thought weighed heavily on Orion as he observed the carefree interactions and the normalcy of daily life around him. These people, unknowingly trapped in a grand and sinister scheme, lived their lives blissfully unaware of the dark truth beneath their feet.

He wondered how they could live so carefree. Didn't they want to know why they had been trapped here? Didn't they want freedom? Didn't they want to know the answers?

It was then that he recalled what Walric had said about Zenithans. He said they were a very stubborn bunch of people and wouldn't want to change anything if they found their current lifestyle stable enough. It was for this reason that they hadn't been to other planets and were trapped on one planet forever. Surprisingly, it was the same case for every Zenithan out there in the three domains.

Orion shook his head from these thoughts and looked towards the girl in the mask.

"I don't know your name," he said, asking. "How should I address you?"

"Call me whatever you want," she said as she started walking. "We will meet at the Shura cave tomorrow morning, and from there we will follow the path on the map that Kyle has given us."

As she said that, she disappeared into the bustling crowd of Market Street.

Orion shook his head, thinking this girl was really serious about her secret identity.

'I will upgrade my rank to iron rank before tomorrow; that will definitely increase our chances.'

He thought as he moved towards his house, but he hadn't gone far when his body disappeared from Market Street. He hid behind the other dimension because he suddenly felt someone was spying on him.

Since the moment his perception had reached a hundred points—the max stats for bronze rank—he always felt extra senseful for things around him. Even though he couldn't see it, he could somehow feel it. It was a strange ability that Orion couldn't describe.

Looking around the area where he felt that sensation of someone sneaking at him, he saw four middle-aged men searching for someone.

'Why are they following me?'

He didn't know their intentions, but seeing how sneaky they appeared, it probably wouldn't be any good.

But he really wondered why they were following him. He wasn't popular in this place, nor had he offended anyone to the point that they would send people to kill him.

If it were anything he could think of, then it would probably be that man who died accidentally because of the assassin.

Thinking of that, he decided to follow them instead and see who was behind the scene.

***

After searching around the area and not finding Orion, the four middle-aged men looked at each other in frustration.

"Damn, we lost the kid."

"Do you think he sensed us following him?"

"He is only at the bronze rank; it would be a miracle if he could sense us. It's probably because of the crowd that we lost him."

"What should we do then?"

"What else can we do instead of reporting fools?"

As they talked, they inwardly felt ashamed of themselves that they had lost the kid.

"Let's go." Said one of the middle-aged men as he took the lead and went in a direction. A moment later, the other three followed.

Orion, who was hiding in the other dimension, also followed them.

After navigating many turns and paths, they finally reached a large building. This area was less crowded, and there was hardly anything besides the building in front.

He saw the four men enter the building, and following behind them, he also entered.

***

Upon entering, Orion found himself in a small hall that led to many other rooms. He didn't stop to look at anything and followed the four men, but he still observed some details. He noticed people standing at each side of the gates, making him wonder why this building was so heavily guarded.

Soon, the four middle-aged men came to a stop, and so did Orion. He saw that they were in a room where a man in his twenties sat on a chair at the front. On either side of the room, various other middle-aged men and women were seated.

"Gang leader, we failed to capture him. He escaped."

One of the four middle-aged men said this to the man sitting in the front chair.

The man had short, deep blue hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He bore a cut mark on his left eyebrow and had a pretty decent face.

According to what Orion could tell, this man's strength had reached the early stage of the silver rank.

"Don't worry about it," the blue-haired man said, looking at the four middle-aged men. "Just try to look for him, and if you can't find him, then forget it. We aren't his dogs, so we don't need to follow his every order."

"But leader, what if he blames us for not finding him?" Said one of the men sitting on the chairs on the side.

"We aren't the only ones that've been searching for him," the man said, his face appearing relaxed. "Other four gangs are also searching for him, so he won't blame us specifically. Moreover, I have heard he has gone to hunt some high-level monsters with General Dray, so forget about him for now. We should focus on developing our gang members."

Everyone in the room nodded to the man with blue hair.

Orion, who heard everything, found it very interesting. He just didn't understand why that person wanted to kill him, and it appeared he was stronger than this blue haired man whose strength had reached early silver rank.

'Is it the assassin?'

He thought that the assassin was the only one whose strength was in that category. Moreover, he had already tried to assassinate him two times, but failed at both times, so it wouldn't be a surprise that he wanted to kill him once and for all.

But due to Orion being busy leveling up and then trapped in the castle, the assassin might not have found him, and hence he went to look for the five gangs to do his bidding.

'It all makes sense now.'

Orion thought. But he still couldn't rule out the possibility that there might be someone else entirely responsible for this.

'At least I know the location of the one who wanted to kill me.'

He heard the blue-haired man say that the one who wanted to kill him had gone with General Dray to hunt monsters, which Orion suspected was the same monster that Kyle talked about.

He then left the building and found his way to his own house.

Entering inside, he checked if there was anyone else waiting to assassinate him, but he didn't find anyone after searching the whole house, which made him sigh in relief.

'Let's upgrade to iron rank.'

He thought as he took out the last core.