Is it Wrong to Copy Abilities in Apocalypse?

He was simply trying to survive as he ran from one place to another, hoping to get contracted by a god, as he had seen people growing exponentially stronger after getting contracted by gods.

He did everything he could, he even did things that could put his life at risk, yet all he could do was get one single spectator, the riddling phantom; if that was not enough, even this single spectator never gave him anything.

That was until he was offered a contract.

Unlike normal people, who would carefully read any contract they were given, Pratish didn't even look at the contract and directly signed it, fearing that it might disappear.

He excitedly waited for his supposed gift and coins, but all he got was silence in response.

"W-What the hell?! Why didn't I get anything?!"

He roared as he looked up into the sky, injustice and disbelief clear on his face, only to get the same treatment, but just as he was about to scream again, a notification flashed in front of his eyes.

[The Riddling Phantom is asking for you to read the contract once again.]

Pratish did just that, but the moment he did it, his eyes widened in realization, and the reason why he wasn't getting the power he was supposed to gain settled in his mind.

The contract clearly stated that Pratish would have to do one thing for the riddling phantom to gain extra stats and new abilities.

But instead of dampening Pratish's mood, this news brought him elation.

'I can still grow stronger!'

This is what he had been happy about, but not for long, as he quickly asked what he was supposed to do.

[The Riddling Phantom is asking you to kill some people.]

The moment Pratish saw that message, he was frozen still in his spot.

He hesitated, not wanting to fall that low, but then the scene of him pushing a lady in front of the undead, just so he could get the one desired kill he was supposed to gain during the first tutorial.

He was already murdered, and not someone with their hands clean, which meant that it would be fine to kill more people.

There were no police to catch them anymore, and if somehow they still became active, then no matter how many kills they had, they were still going to have to go to jail, so why not just increase the number of kills?

Or so was what he had thought of doing until he heard the next words of the riddling phantom.

[The Riddling Phantom wants you to gather people under the pretense of calling out for a group formation to kill the first ranker.]

Those words caused Pratish's eyes to quake as his lips trembled, letting out some shutters.

"Y-You want me t-to do what?"

He questioned again, hoping that all he heard was nothing but a silly prank, but it seemed like it was not.

[The Riddling Phantom assures you by saying that you won't be alone and will have some teammates.]

Pratish visibly relaxed the moment he heard those words, as he knew that he alone could never even dream of achieving that goal.

Defeating a monster like Alex, who had been on the first rank since the start, was not something he could do without someone's help.

The next hour, as soon as he met with his new gang, he started to implement the plan he was taught by the riddling phantom.

[The Riddling Phantom wants you to pretend like you were serious about hunting the first ranker down.]

[The Riddling Phantom wants you to chat with the other two and discuss what path you should take.]

It went on like that, with Pratish listening to every single command of the riddling phantom, wanting to complete this one task as soon as possible.

"What do you want me to do now??"

Pratish, who had been listening to every single command of the riddling phantom, couldn't help but let out an incredulous question as he heard the demon telling him to kill the bunch of humans he had gathered to hunt Alex.

It was around 8:30 am when around 20 people had gathered in a spot, wanting to try their luck at being able to kill the first ranker on the bounty list.

Who would've thought that Pratish would suddenly disappear from his spot after inviting them here?

By the time they saw him, it was already too late, as he was followed by a group of level 4 and 5 beasts.

Unlike Pratish and his two companions, the other humans in the group weren't that strong; they were just a group of people who barely had any coins left after getting their levels up to 5.

All of them wanted to get more coins, and hunting the one with the most coins was the best option for that.

There was this scheme where you would get your rewards distributed among the group members according to your contribution in a battle, and this was what the people in this group were trying to do.

How would they have known that Pratish was just a puppet being controlled by someone and that someone wanted them all dead?

"Why aren't you helping us?!"

"Was this your plan from the start?!"

"Was there nothing like killing the first bounty ranker from the start?!"

People slowly started to realize that they were tricked and there was no such thing as forming a group to kill the first ranker.

It wasn't even possible in the first place.

If it was, wouldn't other people have tried it?

They now realized how blinded they were by greed.

'I should've believed in those people who warned us about trying to go against that guy...'

This was what every single one of them thought.

In the world chat, there were people who had seen Alex in action from the second tutorial, and they knew how monstrous he was, so they tried to dissuade the bunch of people who had readily agreed to this group formation, only to be ignored.

In the end, they stopped speaking.

Now, when they were surrounded by beasts with levels lower than theirs, only to get killed, they grasped the situation.

But it was already too late.

"You are about to get contracted by the riddling phantom as well?"

Pratish, on the other hand, was shocked by the revelation that he wasn't the only one to get contracted by the riddling phantom; the other two people who were with him were also in line.

Rakesh and Preety, the two partners in crime, had received the same kind of offer from the riddling phantom as he had.

"What do you mean, as well?"

Rakesh, who only knew about Preety being the other person who was supposed to form a contract with the riddling phantom other than him, frowned as he heard Pratish's words.

"I mean—"

But before the topic could go on any further and Pratish could even reply to Rakesh's words, a new notification flashed in front of his eyes, causing them to widen a bit.