GA: Chapter 99 – Even Gods Have Their Selfish Side
He only hoped the internal chaos wouldn't affect their approach to dealing with mutant creatures. If it did, their development would inevitably fall far behind other nations.
Nourished by spiritual qi, the intelligence of mutant creatures would grow rapidly and could even undergo a fundamental transformation. The most exceptional among them might, in the shortest possible time, develop intellect no lesser than a human's.
This was not good news for humanity. Everyone understood what highly intelligent mutant creatures would represent.
Learning capacity.
Terrifying learning capacity.
They would gradually learn everything about humans—language, technology—and might even create a civilization of their own.
When that day came, suppressing them would no longer be easy.
The Earth at that point would become a world of truly countless competing races, locked in perpetual conflict.
Nor would the mutant creatures be peaceful or tolerant among themselves. Just as they'd had natural enemies before their transformation, they still would afterward. The only difference was that now they shared a common and overwhelmingly powerful enemy—human civilization.
An all-out war between mutant creatures and humanity was inevitable.
Human numbers were greater, and their combat power was stronger—but if the mutant creature races united, their total numbers would far surpass humanity's.
Humanity's current stance toward mutant creatures was simple: every race other than human was an enemy, and would remain so until those creatures no longer posed any threat.
After [Natural Authority] underwent its transformation, the entire Earth held almost no secrets from Bai Xuan.
If he chose to, he could access any information on the planet. Under normal circumstances he didn't—because even if he knew everything, he had no intention of involving himself. From his perspective, human civilization would advance rapidly because of spiritual qi and the existence of mutant creatures. The mutant creatures, in turn, would keep pursuing greater strength because of their weakness relative to humans and to one another.
This was a reasonably healthy cycle. He saw no reason to break it.
After all, this was a war between civilizations internal to Earth—not a war between an alien civilization and Earth. If it were an external conflict, his attitude would be entirely different.
As he had discussed with Angel Yan, the development of civilizations in the cosmos should proceed in a state of peace and stability. Wars, when they occurred, should be internal—not the result of outside influence.
But this internal civilizational war had, in truth, already determined its final victor: human civilization.
No matter how powerful the mutant creatures grew—even if they eventually surpassed human civilization in strength—Bai Xuan would not allow human civilization to fall. More precisely: he would not allow Chinese civilization to fall.
Even gods had their selfish side.
Bai Xuan didn't deny his partiality toward China. The items he had manifested were evidence of this—seventy percent of them had been distributed exclusively within China's borders, while the remaining thirty percent was randomly distributed globally, China still included.
Which meant more than seventy percent of all manifested items were scattered within China.
And every time someone claimed one, Bai Xuan felt it.
Qin Tian, recognized by the Blazing Dragon Armor. Chen Bing, recognized by the Imperial Arm Demon's Extract. Ning Guang, who obtained the Smoke-Smoke Fruit. Ye Feng, who received the Crown of Life.
In the Lighthouse Nation, someone with a magnetic ability had awakened and obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
In the Bear Nation, someone with a berserk ability had awakened and been accepted by the Imperial Arm Demon Haunter.
In the Island Nation, someone with a longsword ability had awakened and obtained the Imperial Arm One-Hit Kill—Murasame.
Worth mentioning: the Agul transformation belt from Kamen Rider Agul had also been claimed by someone—though unfortunately, not long after obtaining it, that person had been gravely wounded while protecting civilians during an escape, then ambushed and killed.
What could be said—his physical constitution was too weak. Unlike Qin Tian with his extraordinary base physique capable of drawing out power beyond anything seen in the original work, this person's awakened ability was mediocre, and even the second spiritual qi tide hadn't brought any transformation.
Even transforming into Agul yielded only the basic form. Protecting a portion of people through a beast tide while severely wounded was already an achievement—suffering critical injuries was unavoidable. He simply hadn't anticipated dying at the hands of the very people he'd been protecting.
It sounds like a clichéd story. But that's what reality is.
So next time—don't show off when you transform. Don't keep the belt visibly on the outside of your waist for everyone to see, making people think anyone who wore it could transform.
Coveting it was inevitable under those circumstances.
Perhaps because its chosen host had been killed by the very people he was protecting, Agul had returned to Bai Xuan for now. It would likely take some time before it went looking for a new master.
The other transformation devices were probably still waiting—waiting for the one who called to them.
Bai Xuan shook his head, raised his right hand, and made a casual gesture. A pale blue screen materialized before him, displaying a large giant panda.
If Qin Tian had been there, he'd have immediately recognized it as the mutant panda that had fought alongside human ability users against the mutant creature tide in the center of the battlefield.
As mentioned before, the spiritual qi revival didn't only produce mutant creatures with no goodwill toward humans. Many pets raised by humans, military dogs, and domesticated animals had retained their affinity for people even after awakening.
The numbers were comparatively small, though.
Humans bitten by their own pets were, ironically, more common—perhaps a consequence of having them spayed or neutered.
Because of this mutant panda's combat power, and the process through which it had been gravely wounded protecting humans, China held an exceptionally strong trust and fondness for it.
There were already voices suggesting it be officially declared the Protective Giant Panda of the Nation.
Others had proposed building a combat unit centered around giant pandas.
These pandas had been raised by humans from birth, had strong bonds with their keepers, and held an enormous goodwill toward people in general. Even after mutation, the only notable change had been a dramatically increased appetite.
Their combat power was extraordinary.
This was evident from the mutant panda's ability to take on multiple mutant creatures simultaneously and maintain the upper hand.
Pandas might be called bears—but anyone who treated one like a cat would be laughed out of the room.
They were bears, in every sense of the word.
A mutant giant bear was already fearsome. A mutant giant panda was something else entirely.
If cultivated properly by humans, it would be a formidable combat asset.
"Po. Panda."
"This is a kind of fate, in its own way. Given your name and your species, not passing its legacy to you would be hard to justify."
"Kung Fu Panda…"
"A Dragon Warrior that belongs entirely to China."
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