I Can Copy Curses

'So, what should I do before the assessment starts? I still have about four minutes to spare.'

He thought for a moment, then activated the Curse of the Stormcaller, slowly floating into the air as he headed towards the presence he sensed near the bridge.

"Oh?"

From the air, he noticed something. He saw a man slam another man with a chunk of rocks.

"The battle hasn't started, and they're already fighting."

Orion felt intrigued and decided to watch, curious to see what would happen. After being slammed by the rocks, the man should have died—Orion wanted to see if he truly would, considering the assessment hadn't officially begun.

The attacker used his talent again, slamming another chunk of rocks onto the man, pinning him against the wall.

"Heh, let's see what happens next."

Orion waited, and moments later, the man who had been slammed into the wall appeared beside it, as if he had respawned after dying. He seemed completely fine, without a scratch on him.

Orion was surprised. He had expected that the man might just not die, no matter how much he was attacked, since the assessment hadn't officially begun.

'I see, so they simply respawn after dying.'

Orion noted this and flew off, searching for Tracy and Erza. He had already decided he would help both of them make it to the top 200, though after that, it would depend on their strength. At least for Tracy, as her older brother, he could do that much.

However, as he scouted the area, he noticed the cityscape ended abruptly, replaced by a forest ahead.

'I'm certain the city wasn't this small the last time I was here.'

Orion frowned and flew around the city again. After a few minutes, he realized this was a different city—much smaller than the one from before.

He also noticed not just one or two, but hundreds of people flying around the city, seemingly scouting the area like him.

Despite this, he couldn't find Tracy or Erza, even though the city was small.

'Where should I look for them?'

Orion frowned as he noticed the countdown was almost up.

[The final assessment has begun. There is no time limit. The assessment will only end when there is one participant remaining in the entire Dreamshore.]

Another notification popped up in his vision, announcing the start of the assessment.

Orion smiled slightly at the message. Though he was worried about Tracy, he also felt a surge of excitement.

"Huh? Should I really be excited about this?"

He frowned, realizing something problematic. Knowing he was the strongest participant in the assessment, he would definitely win by becoming the last one standing. It was a given—whether he used his full strength or not.

He was simply too strong.

"Now that I think about it, my abilities are basically cheating." Orion muttered to himself. He casually raised his hand and caught a flaming arrow aimed at him, stopping it with his bare hand.

"Huh, a sneak attack?" Orion smirked, glancing towards the roof of a five-story building behind him. "You're good. Being able to change the direction of your arrows is impressive, but it's not enough." He crushed the flaming arrow in his hand, reducing it to nothing but sparks.

"Heh," sneered the bald young man standing on the roof, his upper body completely hairless.

Orion smiled, fully aware of why the man didn't seem worried.

At that moment, ten more fire arrows shot toward him from all directions, surrounding him with seemingly no escape—at least, that's what the bald man thought.

Orion simply drew his sword and waved it, releasing a gust of wind from the center.

The flaming arrows reached Orion but were swept up in the wind, circling him as if caught in a vortex. Orion willed the wind, making it revolve around him, carrying the flaming arrows along with it.

"This!"

The bald man panicked and ran towards the door to the roof.

"It's not that easy to run away," Orion smiled lightly as he directed the wind toward the fleeing man.

The ten flaming arrows flew with the wind, striking the man.

Ten small explosions followed, completely destroying the roof of the building.

As for the bald man, he was nowhere to be seen.

Orion smiled, sensing that the man's presence had disappeared when the arrows hit him, signaling his elimination.

[Kill Count: 1]

A bar appeared in Orion's vision, indicating the number of kills.

'Since there's something tracking kills, there's bound to be a ranking system too.'

Orion thought as he landed on the street. He had already decided what to do next. With all his curses, it was impossible for anyone to even injure him, but he couldn't use all of them here.

He was in the VR world, and any curses that had environmental effects like Velocity Burst or Frozen Torment would give away his identity. He wasn't planning to use them anyway, since they were well-known for belonging to specific individuals.

Curses like Supreme Gravity, Cursed Pulse, and Disintegration Aura were similarly off-limits, as their effects could easily be detected in the VR world.

Any curse that affected the external environment couldn't be used because it would be sensed.

However, there were many curses that directly impacted his body, such as Blind Speed, Berserk Body, and others in his arsenal.

Orion believed the people monitoring the VR world wouldn't be able to sense anything happening inside his body.

'They can monitor my real body's health in the pod, but could their machines detect chaos energy?'

Orion doubted that. He also doubted whether they even had knowledge of any energy beyond mana, the common power source in this world.

'Well, it doesn't matter either way. It's not like anyone here—aside from Mark—can come even remotely close to me in terms of strength.'

He thought this as he suddenly came to a stop. "Come out. No need to hide anymore. I know you're sneaking around trying to kill me," he called out, his voice calm but carrying an edge.

For a moment, there was silence. No one responded.

Seeing this, Orion sighed. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way, then."

A crazed smile spread across his face as his figure vanished from his position.

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Also, I was hoping you could leave some comments or reviews to let me know your thoughts!

Some gifts would be appreciated as well, but up to you....