I Can Copy Curses

As Orion asked this question, both Mark and Mei Lin looked at the old man for answers.

"I have seen the ending," the old man said, shocking them. "But it's a bad ending."

"So, you need us to play out the good ending, is that it?" Orion asked, frowning.

"If only it were that easy," the old man sighed. "The bad ending is the original ending of the world you live in. For you, the ending hasn't come yet, but it's already written. So, no matter what others do in this world, the ending won't change. It will always end in the bad ending."

Orion frowned, hearing the old man. If the ending wouldn't change, then why call them? He also had something else to ask. "Why do you want to change the ending? Isn't it just the natural flow of the world? Even if humans lost, so what? The story you started has come to an end. It's a complete book. Why do you want to change it?"

"Good question," the old man smiled at Orion. "I don't want to change the ending, and you're right; the book has already ended, but the three heroes haven't given up yet."

"What do you mean?" Orion asked. "Even if they haven't given up, it doesn't matter, right? Because they have already lost. Humans have already lost the war."

"Then how are you and the people of the world you live in still alive?" the old man asked. "As you said, the story has already ended, so how is it that I summoned you transmigrators in the middle of the story when this world is already doomed? If I had summoned you, you should have arrived to see the end of the world, the end of the story, the tragic ending of the three heroes, and much more. But you arrived in the middle of time. How is that possible?"

"Isn't that possible because you are the Almighty God?" Orion shrugged. "If you want, anything can be possible."

"Heh, you're correct but also wrong," the old man smiled. "You see, I can do anything in the story I am writing. I can make people die and resurrect them as I wish, but once the story ends, I lose all my powers. I become nothing but a spectator in my own world."

Orion, Mark, and Mei Lin realized at that moment why they had been called here.

"Then again, if you didn't do anything to the story, then how were you able to summon us in the middle of the story when the book has already ended? It's like you went back in time and summoned us there, but you can't do that since you are merely a spectator right now," Orion said, frowning.

The old man smiled. "Hehe, that's why I said the three heroes haven't given up yet."

"You mean it's because of them?" Orion didn't understand what the old man was talking about when he said it was because of the three heroes.

"Indeed. Let's talk about how you all come into play," the old man said. "As I mentioned before, I didn't want to change the ending, since it is the original ending. But the three main characters of my story managed to pull off something big that gave them almost infinite time on their hands. Yet even with infinite time, they failed to change the ending. Every time they tried, they only arrived at the bad ending, no matter how they changed the story or where."

The old man added, "In short, the ending is fixed for them. No matter how many tries they have, no matter how they would go about changing the story, it will always lead to the same bad ending. It's like when you fill water in a bucket: no matter how you fill it, the water will always reach the top and overflow if more is added. The same rule applies here. The ending for them has become an absolute point in time which they can't change."

"They can't change it, but we can!" Orion realized something at that moment. "They can't change anything because they are all part of that world, so whatever they try will always lead to that original bad ending. It's like you said: no matter how they fill the water, it will always reach the top."

"But we can change it, since we are all transmigrators," he added excitedly.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The old man nodded seeing Orion understood what he wanted to say.

"I don't understand one thing," Mei Lin said, frowning. "Aren't we also from this world too? At least our bodies are, right? So technically, we are also from this world."

"You are correct. It's not that transmigrators are different; they also occupy the bodies of humans in the three domains. So technically, whatever you do will not change the bad ending," the old man said. "But do you think I wouldn't know about this before transmigrating all of you?"

The old man added, smiling, "What makes transmigrators special is that their originals were supposed to die, but since I transmigrated your souls into them, they—or rather, you transmigrators—managed to survive, at least some of you."

Orion frowned, not understanding something. "But still, that doesn't change the fact that whatever we do would also lead to the same ending as the three heroes, right?" he asked.

"Well, I wish I could tell you more about why the transmigrators are so special and how their interference would lead to a different ending, but I can't," the old man said, smiling. "If I told you why or how, it would spoil the story, which would not be good for either of us."

He added, looking at the three of them, "Just know that you transmigrators have what it takes to change the original ending, change the bad ending, and I believe only the three of you out of hundreds of transmigrators over the years have that capability, as only you three possess the strongest talent possible among the transmigrators."

The trio nodded solemnly. "So, who summoned us?" Mei Lin asked.

"Ah, I almost forgot about that," the old man said before he held the ink pen in his hand and tapped on the diary.

Almost instantly, Orion's fist glowed with a gentle blue light as the imprints on his fist came to life, transforming into 49 pages that floated before the old man.

"Do you know how these pages came into existence?" the old man asked the three.

They shook their heads. Elijah had only told them that the pages had some connection to the transmigrators, but from the looks of it, even he didn't seem to understand the deeper meaning behind their existence.