I Can Copy Curses

Chapter 83. Underwater City

"The boat is going straight towards the whirlpool! Why aren't they turning?"

"I don't know. But at this rate, we will drown in the water if the boat gets swept into that whirlpool."

"We have already drowned once, and yet we face the same fate again."

The group of transmigrators, along with some other kids, exclaimed as they saw the whirlpool in the distance closing down. They couldn't understand why the people steering the boat hadn't taken any action yet.

But amidst the exclamations of the shocked group, a couple of kids stood out, appearing remarkably calm. They stared at the whirlpool with a serene demeanor, their eyes devoid of fear, as if the whirlpool held no threat for them at all.

Orion noticed all of that and thought of something before he too forced himself to calm down.

Before long, the boat finally neared the whirlpool, causing it to sway left and right as it continued to move forward.

This caused everyone in the cabin to grab hold of the walls or anything stationary to avoid being thrown around by the swaying of the boat. But it did little to help them. As the boat drew closer to the whirlpool, the frequency and intensity of the swaying increased, making it harder for anyone to maintain their balance.

Even Orion was having a hard time controlling his body.

'There is no better time than now to use the curse of Constant Pull.'

Therefore, without much thought, he activated the Curse of Constant Pull, generating a strong gravitational force from below. This instantly halted his swaying, anchoring his body firmly in place.

But at that moment, a kid came crashing down on him.

"Thud!"

He collided with Orion, who stood like a statue and didn't move even after the collision. However, the same couldn't be said for the kid who crashed into him; to him, it felt as if he had slammed into a massive boulder rather than a human.

"Ah, sorry," the kid said as he stood up and apologized before quickly grabbing onto something for support.

It wasn't just this kid; everyone in the boat was in the same situation.

Orion couldn't do anything to help them, nor did he want to. He was determined to keep his abilities hidden, even from the other kids. It was his only card that could help him in this situation, and he didn't want to risk exposing it.

***

As the kids in the cabin struggled to maintain their balance amidst the swaying, the boat reached the edge of the whirlpool.

Before anyone could react, the boat was swept into the vortex. It began to revolve around the center of the whirlpool at a wild speed, its path tightening as the shape of the boat grew smaller and smaller, until the boat vanished entirely into the churning waters.

Orion, seemingly the only one left standing in the cabin, watched as waves of water crashed against the window before everything turned blue.

Panic gripped him momentarily as he feared the boat had submerged underwater. However, after a tense moment, he realized that no water was seeping in through the door of the cabin.

The door wasn't waterproof; water and wind could pass right through it. So, Orion couldn't comprehend why water wasn't flooding in, especially when he could clearly see nothing but water outside from the window of the boat.

As he wondered about the strange phenomena, Orion noticed the scenery outside the window had changed.

The blue water disappeared and was replaced by buildings.

Orion couldn't believe what he was seeing at that moment. Because as far as his eyes could see, only buildings and houses could be seen in the distance, along with trees and small forests.

'How did the boat come here?'

He clearly remembered seeing water outside the window of the boat, but now they appeared to have arrived on land.

This whole situation seemed bizarre to him.

At that moment, the door to their cabin opened, and the bald man came in.

"Get out of the cabin," he said, looking at the kids still lying on the floor of the boat. "We will be leaving soon."

Hearing him, all the kids who were lying down stood up and got ready to leave.

"Follow me," he said as he took the lead and walked out of the cabin.

Orion and the group of kids didn't waste any more time and followed the bald man from behind.

Appearing out of the cabin, they were surprised to see buildings and houses in the distance, considering they thought they had drowned in the whirlpool.

Meanwhile, Orion looked at the sky because that's where their boat popped out from, at least according to him. Looking at the sky, he noticed that it was waving unusually, like how water would wave in the ocean.

'So, the boat indeed came from there.'

He felt that he understood some things, like that the whirlpool their boat had drowned in wasn't an actual whirlpool but a means of transport, like a portal that would transport the boat here to this place.

After figuring that out, he looked around the area surrounding the boat, and it was then that he noticed that the boat appeared to be flying in the air.

From that viewpoint, he could clearly see the boat going down, and the buildings and houses now appeared more clear to him.

He then noticed the structure of the buildings here was rather strange—strange in the sense that they appeared different from the buildings he had seen on Earth.

Unlike those on Earth, where most buildings were typically four-sided structures like rectangles or squares, or at most, deviations would still adhere to a polygonal shape.

The buildings in this place were the complete opposite. Not a single square or rectangular structure was in sight, which in itself wasn't surprising. What caught Orion off guard was the absence of polygonal shapes altogether. Instead, the buildings took on circular or semi-circular forms, with a wide variety of designs. Some resembled waves in water, while others looked like clouds in the sky.

Also, most of the buildings appeared to be blue for some reason.

Witnessing the unique architecture and layout of this place, Orion concluded that the culture and society of the three domains must be vastly different from those of Earth. He speculated that only the Human Federation Realm, from which Runo's team hailed, had the potential for a culture and society similar to that of Earth.

However, he also noticed something unsettling about this place as he observed the buildings. There wasn't a single soul in sight, and the entire area seemed unnervingly quiet. It was as if all the residents of this place had vanished long ago, leaving only the buildings behind.

As Orion thought about all of this, the boat slowly landed on the ground.

Looking around, Orion saw that there appeared to be a path right next to the boat leading to a gate in the distance.

'That's where they planned to lock us in?' n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He didn't know what they had planned for them, but hearing them refer to the group as "manpower" and "stock," Orion couldn't shake the feeling that they were being coerced into some form of labor or servitude.

If things were truly as he suspected, Orion believed there might be something he could do to escape. However, if they were indeed confined to a place without freedom of movement, the situation would undoubtedly become more challenging.