"Hmm... That night, I drifted off to sleep clutching a picture book, feeling as if I had stepped into its world in my dream... Until around two in the morning, I was jolted awake by a piercing cold. Trying to get up, I accidentally fell to the floor. The maid responsible for taking care of me noticed that I had a high fever of 42 degrees and quickly called for a doctor."
Bai Lingqiu continued, "The doctor gave me medicine and an injection to reduce the fever, but my temperature never went down... Just as my whole family was anxiously worried, my vague consciousness kept wondering why my picture book had disappeared."
"A persistent high fever, a classic symptom after meme infection," Sun Hang said. "According to Dubhe Tower’s statistics, over a third of those infected show this symptom after their first infection with supernatural meme."
"But back then, no one around me thought I was infected with a supernatural meme... After all, in my father’s opinion, I never had the chance to come into contact with a supernatural meme, so how could I be infected by one?"
"At that time, Dragon City wasn’t like it is now, with infected people everywhere," Bai Lingqiu’s doppelganger added.
"The doctor included, everyone believed I was just infected with some bacteria or virus, never connecting my odd symptoms to a supernatural meme. The doctor told my father that I probably had pneumonia and needed a CT scan at the hospital... But just when they were about to put me in the car, I used my ability for the first time."
Bai Lingqiu paused briefly, then continued, "I saw the ’missing’ picture book appear before me, emitting a faint purple glow. The pages flipped with a rustling sound, stopping at a particular page, and then I saw a bird-headed, human-bodied monster emerge from the book, its long beak piercing through the doctor’s head."
"And then what happened?"
"Then I passed out. When I woke up, I found myself lying in an observation room made of one-way glass, wearing a heavy straitjacket with various IV tubes in my arms and neck, and electrodes all over my head..."
"You were only seven years old then, right? How can you remember so clearly?" Sun Hang asked, puzzled.
"I don’t know why, but that memory is still vivid to this day, as if it happened yesterday," Bai Lingqiu whispered. "Not only that, I also remember the bird-headed monster... It was exactly the main character from the story I read before falling asleep, and I saw this monster again in my subsequent dreams."
Bai Lingqiu looked at Sun Hang, seemingly waiting for him to ask some questions, but Sun Hang simply nodded at her to continue, "Go on."
"Later, I learned that the monster killed four people. Besides the doctor, it killed a maid and two bodyguards. It wasn’t until the company’s security team arrived that the monster was taken down... But what puzzled everyone the most was that my father was the closest to me and the monster, yet the creature seemed incapable of seeing him and didn’t harm him at all."
"Can you control the creatures you summon?" Sun Hang asked.
"Yes, but only when I’m conscious. Once I fall into a coma, the summoned creatures lose control," Bai Lingqiu said. "The researchers offered two possible explanations: one is that even in a coma, my subconscious gives the summoned creatures an ’order not to harm the summoner’s family’; the other possibility is that because of my blood relation to my father, the summoned creatures perceive him as a ’kin’ of the summoner, so they don’t attack him."
"Can you summon one for me now?" Sun Hang asked.
However, Bai Lingqiu shook her head, "Unless it’s a moment of utmost urgency, I won’t use my ability."
"Why? Are you worried about revealing your identity?"
"No... Because this summoning ability is completely random," Bai Lingqiu sighed. "Before a summoned creature appears, even I don’t know what will be summoned."
"Completely random... Sounds like drawing cards from a mobile game," Sun Hang said, bemused.
"Exactly like drawing cards... Everything from the Xiazhou Strange Tales is in this ’card pool,’" Bai Lingqiu explained. "The weakest is a harmless weed, and the strongest monsters can destroy a city... Of course, I don’t know if the strongest creatures can be summoned, but I can definitely feel they’re within the random range when I use my ability."
"Got it, these guys are like UR and SSR characters — powerful, but with low drop rates. Normally, ten draws yield mostly R cards, with the occasional SR because of the guaranteed minimum, right?"
"There’s no guaranteed minimum... But the probability of summoning stronger monsters is indeed lower," Bai Lingqiu said. "Moreover, the strength of the summoned creature determines the amount of spiritual power consumed, which could even lead to me falling into a coma, just like my first summoning."
Sun Hang: "And then the summoned creatures lose control?"
"Yes, that’s why I’m hesitant to use my ability," Bai Lingqiu said. "If I ’luckily’ summon the most powerful beings from the book, I’m almost certain they would lose control entirely. The consequences of such powerful creatures going out of control are unimaginable."
"That is indeed a problem..." Sun Hang nodded, "What if you hit a crisis moment and end up summoning a stone or a weed? Wouldn’t that be incredibly unfortunate? Does your ability have a cooldown? Can you summon consecutively?"
"It has a cooldown, but the weaker the summoned entity, the shorter the cooldown. If it’s just a stone or weed, I can almost immediately summon again until a creature with combat ability emerges, which then triggers the cooldown."
"Uh... That’s its own kind of guaranteed minimum mechanism, I suppose?" Sun Hang muttered, "Honestly, your ability seems pretty interesting."
"That is indeed a problem..." Sun Hang nodded, "What if you hit a crisis moment and end up summoning a stone or a weed? Wouldn’t that be incredibly unfortunate? Does your ability have a cooldown? Can you summon consecutively?"
"It has a cooldown, but the weaker the summoned entity, the shorter the cooldown. If it’s just a stone or weed, I can almost immediately summon again until a creature with combat ability emerges, which then triggers the cooldown."
"Uh... That’s its own kind of guaranteed minimum mechanism, I suppose?" Sun Hang muttered, "Honestly, your ability seems pretty interesting."