GA: Chapter 59 – As Expected, You're All Just Here to Show Off
"Extreme Cold · Converge."
A voice, utterly frigid, fell quiet—and the temperature in the air began to drop without a sound. Above her, bone-chilling ice crystallized and took shape: a phoenix wrought entirely of frost and snow.
"KRR—!"
A cry like a phoenix's call rang out. The ice phoenix beat its wings and swept toward the rat tide, its terrible cold surging through the entire space. Ice spread across the ground in every direction—and one by one, then all at once, mutant rat after mutant rat was frozen solid into a perfect ice sculpture.
Another quarter of the rat tide, sealed in place and stripped of life beneath the frost.
Chen Bing said nothing. Once the numbers were about right, she simply dissolved the ice phoenix in the sky and turned her gaze toward Huoyou—no words needed.
"Summon—Blazing Demon Tiger!"
At Huoyou's feet, endless spiritual energy gathered. Crimson runes etched themselves into the ground—and a tiger several meters tall, its entire body wreathed in roaring flame, slowly rose into being.
"ROAR—!"
At that single bellow, the remaining mutant rats flinched backward involuntarily. Something flickered in those eerie green eyes—panic. Fear.
"A'er, go!"
Huoyou slapped the Blazing Demon Tiger on the thigh and pointed at the rat tide ahead.
"ROAAAAR!!!"
With a thunderous cry, the Blazing Demon Tiger became a streak of blazing red—charging headlong into the swarm.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
Searing flame swept across the entire battlefield. The ground shook. Dust filled the air. Mutant rats were crushed underfoot, sent flying, or burned alive by the fire radiating from the tiger's body.
Huoyou kept her eyes fixed on the battlefield, counting. When the numbers were about right, she recalled the Blazing Demon Tiger without hesitation.
Then she looked at Bai Xuan. The meaning was obvious.
Not just her—Chen Bing and Qin Tian were looking at him too. They had already silently assumed that Bai Xuan had a slot in this god-making showcase.
They were manufactured gods, constructed ones.
But Bai Xuan was something else—a deity with genuinely boundless power. The God of Nature.
"I got it."
Bai Xuan could feel what they were thinking. He hadn't expected the moment to be quite this theatrical, but he couldn't deny it sat rather comfortably in his chest.
He gave a small nod, then turned his gaze toward the remaining rat tide.
By now, the rats had no desire to stay. A good number had already started fleeing backward—only the military cordon and the wall of firepower beyond it kept them pinned in place. Without that, they'd have scattered long ago.
So—something within normal parameters, then.
A sliver of blue light flashed through Bai Xuan's eyes.
Every last mutant rat, mid-scramble and mid-flight, froze.
And then began to thrash wildly, straining with everything they had—going nowhere.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
…
One rat's body burst open. Then another. Then another. Then all of them—every last mutant rat exploding simultaneously, blood spraying from their bodies in all directions.
Caught in the sunlight, it looked, somehow, almost beautiful.
"What… was that?"
When Qin Tian, Chen Bing, and Huoyou had shown their power, it was overwhelming—but at least you could follow what was happening, understand how those rats had died. What Bai Xuan just did? Nobody had any idea.
Why had the rats frozen? Why had they been struggling but been completely unable to move? Why had their bodies exploded?
"Heaven is genuinely unfair. Before the revival I was just an ordinary office worker. After awakening I thought I'd finally turned my life around—but it turns out I'm still just ordinary."
"So this is the gap between a genius and a normal person? I can feel it now!"
"Is the state actually trying to create gods? Or did they just go out and find one to film?"
"All of us together spent this long just clearing a little over half the rats—and then the four of them each took out a quarter in one move?"
"Get it straight—they each stopped on their own when they hit a quarter. Any one of them could have wiped out everything that was left in a single attack."
"Does it have to be this ridiculous…"
Every Bureau ability user watching let out a helpless, rueful laugh. To have gotten into the Bureau in the first place meant their talent was considered exceptional among ordinary people—and yet here they were.
Heaven, it seemed, was unfair no matter the circumstances.
Huoyou turned to Bai Xuan with a curious look.
"How did their bodies explode?"
"I was originally going to draw out their blood and shape it into a divine beast like the rest of you—but then I thought about it and decided a blood rain would work better."
"Somehow it felt more spectacular that way."
Bai Xuan didn't directly answer her question. He just watched the blood still raining down ahead of him, a small smile on his face.
Though really, that was the answer.
Because he wanted that effect—so their bodies stopped, and thrashed, and then burst open. That was all there was to it.
What could he say? They were part of nature.
"Damn it, I want to show off too!"
Ye Feng stared at the four of them with barely concealed envy. If he'd awakened a combat ability, he'd be putting on displays like these as well.
"Speaking of which—Qin Tian, why did you make a thunder dragon? Your ability is the Divine Dragon, right? Why not just transform into a dragon yourself?"
"And Chen Bing—your power is Extreme Cold. What's with the ice phoenix?"
"Huoyou summoning a flaming tiger makes sense. But what were you two doing?"
Something dawned on him and he looked between the two of them, genuinely puzzled.
"Have you forgotten how long I get when I transform?" Qin Tian said, eyeing him with pained resignation.
His awakened ability was the Divine Dragon—and with it came the power of a divine dragon: commanding wind and rain, controlling thunder and lightning. But whether it was because his current strength was too far below the mythical standard, or something else entirely, when he transformed, he came out barely over a meter long.
Calling it a dragon was generous. It looked more like a peculiarly shaped snake.
That wasn't a divine display—that was exposing himself to mockery. Condensing a thunder dragon out of lightning was a far more impressive sight, by any measure.
Chen Bing simply glanced at him and said flatly:
"Could raw Extreme Cold, on its own, demonstrate my power as well as an ice phoenix?"
"…"
Ye Feng closed his eyes.
Of course. They're all just here to show off.
After that, cleanup wasn't the Bureau's responsibility—there were dedicated teams for that.
Over eight thousand mutant rats in total. Some reduced to charcoal. Some frozen into ice sculptures. Some simply blown apart into bloody fragments. The manner of death was, in every case, deeply unpleasant to look at.
On the battlefield now, ability users were sprawled out everywhere—some flat on the ground, some leaning against walls in whatever corner they'd found.
In the heat of battle there'd been no time to feel it. Watching the finale they'd felt nothing either. But now that it was over, their bodies had caught up with them, and every last one of them was utterly spent.