As someone in sequence 001, I also want to give up today.

Antarctica, a frozen continent where eternal night and aurora borealis intertwine.

This is the remote end of the world, a place rarely visited by humans, and one of the favorite "playgrounds" of certain special beings.

For example, right now—

"BOOM—!!!"

The ice cliff, hundreds of meters high, collapsed under the violent impact, and huge chunks of ice flew everywhere like cannonballs.

A colossal beast, the size of a small passenger plane, covered in deep blue scales, with a single horn on its head and wingspans of fifty meters, roared as it charged out from the shattered ice cliff!

Its scales are covered with ice that has remained frozen for millennia, and it breathes out extremely cold breaths that can freeze steel.

This is an S-class polar beast—the "Glacier Pterosaur," one of the apex predators in the Antarctic food chain.

Its opponent is a human.

A young man with white hair and eyebrows, dressed in simple white casual clothes with a light blue down jacket over them, and with a handsome appearance that exudes a touch of unruliness.

He stood barefoot on the ice floes, with the icy sea below at minus sixty degrees Celsius.

But the seawater where he stood did not freeze; instead, it rippled with strange, almost living waves.

It is Jiang Yu, the Ice Emperor, the owner of Sequence 005 and the "Winter's Authority".

"Tsk, you reacted pretty quickly."

Jiang Yu looked at the approaching Glacier Pterosaur, but instead of dodging, he stroked his chin with great interest and commented.

"The hardness of these scales is 20% higher than that of the 'Ice Crystal Mammoth' from last time. The cold air generated by the flapping of its wings can instantly freeze an A-level ability user... Not bad, not bad, qualified to be my 'warm-up punching bag' today."

As he spoke, the Glacier Pterosaur had already charged close!

The enormous claw tore through the air, carrying a chilling aura that could freeze everything, and viciously grabbed at Jiang Yu's head!

"Ice Wall".

Jiang Yu casually raised his hand and lightly tapped his index finger in front of him.

"Click-clack—"

A crystal-clear ice wall, over three meters thick and shimmering with diamond-like luster, suddenly solidified out of thin air!

This ice wall is not static; inside, countless ice crystals are rotating and reorganizing at high speed, forming a dynamic, almost absolute defensive structure!

"Bang!!!"

The giant claws of the Glacier Pterosaur slammed into the ice wall!

The force, strong enough to tear steel apart, left only a few shallow white marks on the surface of the ice wall.

The ice wall remained completely still!

"roar--!!"

The pterosaur roared angrily, opened its mouth wide, and spewed out a thick, deep blue, extremely cold breath!

Wherever his breath passed, even the air froze into tiny ice crystals that drifted down!

In an instant, ice several meters thick formed on the sea surface and quickly spread towards Jiang Yu's feet!

"Hmm... the purity of this breath's 'absolute zero' is about 87%? That's 5% higher than what's recorded in the data. Looks like you haven't been idle these past few years."

Jiang Yu even had the leisure to analyze his opponent's attack data.

He paused in his tracks.

"end."

The spreading ice stopped abruptly less than half a meter from his feet.

It was as if there was an invisible boundary, declaring "Freezing is prohibited here".

"We've warmed up enough."

Jiang Yu snapped his fingers.

"It's my turn."

He didn't move, but simply spread his right hand and gently clenched it towards the glacier pterosaur in the air.

"Ice Burial - Eternal Coffin"

There was no earth-shattering fanfare.

But the temperature in the space around the Glacier Pterosaur began to drop at an alarming rate!

It's not simply cold; it's that the concept of "temperature" itself is being forcibly "stripped away" by some higher-level rule!

The pterosaur was horrified to discover that its scales, which were strong enough to withstand the extreme cold of the polar regions, were beginning to show strange, grayish-white "dead silence" patterns.

Its extremely cold breath, the instant it leaves its mouth, solidifies into a deep blue icicle, and then... shatters into powder.

It flapped its wings frantically, trying to escape this eerie area.

But with each flap of its wings, it became heavier and stiffer.

It was as if countless invisible shackles were dragging it toward an eternal, frozen abyss!

"roar--!!!"

The pterosaur let out a defiant roar, unleashing its massive S-class energy in an attempt to break free from the invisible constraints.

The ice cracked, and the seawater churned!

However, it was all in vain.

Jiang Yu's seemingly casual gesture did not release a simple low temperature, but rather the embodiment of the concept of "winter"!

It's suppression at the rule level!

In just ten seconds.

The Glacier Pterosaur's roar grew weaker and weaker, and its struggles became less and less intense.

Its massive body, starting from its tail, was quickly covered by a layer of grayish-white ice crystals that seemed to contain the meaning of "eternal death."

The ice crystals spread slowly, but unstoppably.

Wherever it goes, even energy fluctuations are frozen and sealed.

Just as the pterosaur was about to be completely frozen and become yet another "ice sculpture" on the Antarctic ice sheet—

"Ring ring—ring ring—"

A cheerful, even slightly rustic, cell phone ringtone suddenly rang out on this snow-covered battlefield.

Jiang Yu paused for a moment, then subconsciously touched his pocket.

It really was his phone ringing.

Who has such good timing?

He glanced at the pterosaur that was about to be frozen solid.

After thinking for a moment, he maintained the suppression of "Ice Burial" with his left hand and took out his phone from his pocket with his right hand.

I glanced at the caller ID: Li Yu.

"Oh, what a rare guest!"

Jiang Yu pressed the answer button, held the phone between his shoulder and ear, and spoke in a relaxed tone.

"Instructor Li, what brings you to call me today? Did your precious older brother cause some trouble again?"

Li Yu's smiling voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Brother Jiang, what are you talking about? My brother has been behaving himself lately. He has some good news to tell you."

"Good news? What good news? Has a new iceberg made entirely of millennia-old ice been discovered in Antarctica? Or has the aurora borealis mutated in the Arctic?"

"That's much more interesting."

Li Yu paused, her tone clearly excited.

"Senior Lilith has broken through. SS-rank, the first human ability user in the world to definitively enter this field."

Jiang Yu paused almost imperceptibly with his left hand, which was maintaining the "ice burial" technique.

The nonchalant smile on his face faded slightly, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"SS-rank? That old man... cough, that 'Witch of Reason' really succeeded?"

"It's absolutely true. The General Administration has confirmed that her mental strength has broken through the 100,000 mark, and her abilities have undergone some kind of qualitative change, but the specifics are still unclear. So, a few of us discussed it and decided to throw her a small celebration party the day after tomorrow at 'Cloud Top Manor' in Beijing. What do you say, Brother Jiang, are you free to come?"

Jiang Yu glanced at the glacier pterosaur in front of him, which was frozen up to its neck and only had its head still struggling weakly.

Suddenly, I realized... this S-class alien beast that I had found quite interesting just moments ago suddenly lost its appeal.

SS-rank...

That old guy who always looks twelve years old, loves wearing Lolita dresses, and turns your coffee cup into a bunch of quarks with "matter decomposition" when he's angry, has actually come to this?

That's so interesting!

"Yes, of course I'll go."

Jiang Yu answered without hesitation, a smile of excitement curving his lips.

"How could I possibly miss such a historic moment as the world's first SS-level celebration? It's perfect timing, I haven't been back to Beijing for a while, I'll take this opportunity to see if my old friends have been scared out of their wits by the polar bears."

"It's settled then! The day after tomorrow at 3 PM, Cloud Peak Manor, see you there! Oh, and remember to dress formally. Although this is a small gathering, it's still to celebrate Lilith's birthday, so it wouldn't be good to be too casual."

"Okay, okay, I'll dig out that dress I've been keeping at the bottom of my drawer. Who else is going?"

"Me, my brother, Chen Zhe, Lin Mo, Dr. Zhao, Sister Honglian, Mingren, plus you, and Lilith herself, that's all for now. They're all acquaintances, so just relax."

"Okay, good list, all the kind of people who can cause trouble. See you the day after tomorrow."

See you the day after tomorrow!

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yu's smile became even brighter.

He looked at the glacier pterosaur in front of him, whose only remaining feature was its eyes, which were filled with despair and terror, and suddenly felt that it was a bit... in his way.

"Sorry, big guy."

Jiang Yu shrugged.

"I was hoping to play with you a little longer and try out the new 'Ice Age Simplified Version' game I just came up with. But I'm in a rush now; I have to go to a very important party."

"So... the game is over."

He suddenly clenched his five fingers together!

"Ice Burial - The End"

"Snap—!!!"

The gray-white ice crystals covering the pterosaur's entire body suddenly erupted with countless tiny yet deadly cracks!

These cracks are not physical damage, but rather act directly on the frozen "existence" itself—its body, energy, consciousness, and even its "connection" with this world!

The pterosaur's last remaining eyeballs, which could still move, suddenly froze.

The brilliance in his pupils, like a blown-out candle, quickly dimmed and vanished.

The next second—

"Splash..."

The massive ice sculpture, tens of meters high, collapsed and shattered silently, like a sandcastle weathered by the elements.

It turned into the finest, shimmering ice crystal dust, which fell in abundance onto the frigid surface of the Antarctic sea, leaving not a trace behind.

An S-class polar overlord vanished completely, as if it had never existed.

Jiang Yu patted non-existent dust off his hands and glanced at the time on his phone.

"Hmm, what a thoroughly enjoyable battle! Time to pack up and head back. I still need to prepare a decent congratulatory gift for that old man... What should I get him? Antarctic ice heart? Or aurora crystals from the Arctic?"

As he pondered this, he walked leisurely along the floating ice on the sea towards the Antarctic continent.

Their figures quickly disappeared into the swirling snow and aurora borealis.

Only the broken ice cliffs and the slowly calming sea remain, telling the story of a battle that just took place here... which, for someone, was merely a "warm-up" level fight.