Chapter Eighty-Six: The First Familiar

After an uncounted stretch of sleep, Bai Feng’s body stirred faintly. The deep, reassuring slumber she had not known in a long time, and the warmth of the embrace around her, seemed to awaken something long buried in the depths of her memory, fragments from childhood. Though she was dimly coming to, her head still swam, and some instinct within her resisted full wakefulness.

“So warm… no, something’s wrong!”

Snatches of what had happened before flickered through her mind in broken flashes. Her body went rigid. She snapped open her eyes, and sure enough, found herself curled in Wang Ling’s arms, pressed against him so closely that even her chest was flattened against his, skin to skin. A nightmare-like chill surged through her heart.

“I actually fell asleep naked in a man’s arms?”

The contract had long since expired. Bai Feng sprang free of Wang Ling’s embrace. Before she could even put on the undergarments laid beside the bed, the priestess robe in her space bag appeared directly on her body, concealing her slender form. Then a blue-white radiance flowed in her hand, and the Guardian Empress Sword, carrying a sacred aura, materialized there. Its blade light trembled as if it wanted to strike down toward the sleeping Wang Ling’s neck, but after rising, it stopped hard in place.

Bai Feng’s mind was in utter chaos. She even forgot that in this space, except for the arena, combat between dreamers was strictly forbidden; even if that immensely powerful blade light were brought down, it would not be able to harm the other party at all.

What Wang Ling had done earlier—undressing her, touching her body, even slipping his fingers into her most intimate place—had made Bai Feng want to tear him to pieces, yet in the end he had abandoned any further violation. That, amid her fury to the extreme, stirred within her a trace of faint gratitude.

The hand holding the Guardian Empress Sword trembled slightly. At last the blade light faded. Bai Feng fixed her gaze on Wang Ling’s serene sleeping face with a complicated look, as though she meant to carve his features deep into her memory. Then a flash of light came, and she was teleported out of the private room. A personal room required the owner’s permission to enter, but could be left at will.

Feeling that Bai Feng had gone, Wang Ling opened his eyes at once and wiped the sweat from his forehead. In truth, the moment the girl moved out of his arms, the noise had already woken him—but to avoid awkwardness, he had kept pretending to sleep.

“With her strength, she should be taking the promotion trial soon. Then the next time we meet will be in the intermediate zone, I suppose… I wonder what attitude she’ll have toward me then… will she still want to kill me?”

Thinking of Bai Feng’s exquisitely beautiful face, her graceful and alluring body, especially those soul-snaring eyes and that barren, lifeless lower body, Wang Ling could not help feeling a stirring of desire. Forcibly taking possession of a girl’s body was still something he could not do, but if the other side were willing to cooperate, then there would be no problem at all.

“Forget it. Bai Feng is a superpower; she should already have received angelic power, so she’ll only become even more formidable. I’m just a rookie scraping by in the beginner zone. No one knows how long the road ahead is—perhaps we’ll never cross paths again. Why think so much?”

Wang Ling sighed and dressed himself. Only then did he discover that Bai Feng had left behind her undergarments on the bed. A little helplessly, he took them in his hand, felt that throwing them away would be a pity, and so placed them in the bathroom to hang up.

Once he let Bai Feng’s matter go, he remembered that in his space bag there was still the E-rank summoning stone he had obtained from the box dropped by Elliott, and so he brought out that precious and rare item.

“It can summon a familiar? E-rank seems a little low. Should I keep it for myself, or sell it to someone else at the free market? But from what Su said, getting a familiar is extremely difficult. If I never get another chance to obtain one and give up this item now, wouldn’t that be a shame?”

He looked at the beautiful summoning stone, its surface shimmering with a mesmerizing glow, and after a moment’s thought asked the Dream Badge, “Can the E-rank familiar that gets summoned be upgraded?”

After receiving an affirmative answer, he used the item. Since it could be upgraded, there was no issue at all. Radiant golden light shot outward from the stone; within it, the stone crumbled to powder and vanished, while a figure gradually took shape.

It was a human girl.

But Wang Ling knew that her true identity could absolutely not be that of a human girl, because familiars would never be human.

Though the Dream Badge had not yet provided the familiar’s name, the instant the girl appeared, Wang Ling recognized exactly who she was.

Those green twin tails that nearly brushed her ankles, the dark emerald pupils, the red number 01 on her arm, the black sleeves exposing her shoulders, the silver-gray shirt with a green tie, the short black skirt trimmed in green, the green-and-white striped underwear hidden beneath the skirt, and the giant scallion in her hand—all of it gave her away completely.

“Xiaochu?!”

Wang Ling’s mouth twitched. How had Xiaochu been pulled out by a summoning stone? Aside from singing, what could this young lady possibly be good for? To conquer enemies with song, like Lin Mingmei? Most ridiculous of all, Xiaochu within the light before him was not even the size of a palm!

Less than ten centimeters tall—an utterly super-miniature Xiaochu.

At this moment the Dream Badge’s prompt sounded:

“You used the precious and rare item E-rank Summoning Stone. The source range of familiars includes any world on FC, GBA, and Android. You summoned Mini Xiaochu from Android Xiaochu 3D IKA. You can view the familiar’s data through the badge.”

“Mini Xiaochu?”

Wang Ling quickly brought up her data through the badge:

“Mini Xiaochu: A scaled-down Xiaochu, a holographic data being that has already transformed data energy into physical matter and formed a body.”

“Attributes: Strength 1; Agility 1; Stamina 1; Intelligence 1; Life 5; Spirit 5. Level: LV1. Affinity: 0. Every 100 points of affinity raises her level by one. Rating: E.”

“Skill: Singing. Can sing songs with support effects. Currently known song: Green Onion Song. This brisk, lively song, when finished, grants everyone within a radius of 10 yards around the singer who has listened to the entire song an increased life recovery rate of 1 point per 10 seconds for the next hour. Singing this song consumes 3 spirit points.”

“Skill: Data Weapon. The ability to materialize data into a weapon. Current weapon: Mini Scallion. Attack: 0–0.”

“Skill: Data Outfit Change. Uses data restructuring to change the clothing worn on the body. Current outfit available for change: Performance Costume. Defense: 1. Ability: Passively increases the song’s influence radius by 1 yard.”

“Description: I’m the tiny little Mini Xiaochu o^_^o. Please take good care of me o>_<o.”

Wang Ling stared at the data in a daze. There were simply too many things about this Mini Xiaochu worth complaining about, whether in attributes or skills, and he had no idea where to begin.

At that moment the summoning light vanished, and Xiaochu in midair immediately dropped downward. He hurriedly reached out and caught the little figure in his hand.

“You caught Mini Xiaochu and spared her the fate of crashing to the ground. Mini Xiaochu’s affinity toward you has increased by 5 points.”

“Thank you!”

A clear voice came from Xiaochu’s mouth, and Wang Ling instantly felt a surge of tears threatening to spill. This was indeed the so-called “voice of first encounter.” Such a voice belonged to Xiaochu alone; no one else could imitate it.

“So she can only sing the Green Onion Song for now? That song is indeed very practical. One hour of an extra point of life recovery every ten seconds—that’s a full 360 points, effectively a sustained area healing skill. Pity Xiaochu’s spirit stat is only 5; after singing one song she’ll be exhausted… There should be new songs later, though. I wonder what kinds of songs and effects they’ll be.”

A feeling of anticipation rose in Wang Ling’s heart. It seemed this Mini Xiaochu’s greatest use was singing. As for Data Weapon and Data Outfit Change, they could probably be ignored—the absurdly useless Mini Scallion with 0–0 attack, and clothing with only 1 defense, were of almost no real value!

“This Mini Xiaochu can actually speak. What a joy!”

Wang Ling supported Xiaochu in his right palm and used his left hand to stroke her small head. The gesture clearly delighted the tiny girl. She nuzzled against his finger, her face full of bliss.

“You stroked Mini Xiaochu. Mini Xiaochu’s affinity toward you has increased by 1 point.”

“Though it’s a pity that a familiar has no combat power, I already have so many summoned companions that I might as well keep this one as a pet. Heh, this can count as a real-life figure, can’t it? And it can move, speak, and sing. After data energy is materialized, the body and skin feel so real, like a tiny living person. If this were the real world, having such a Mini Xiaochu and bringing her to class to show off would feel amazing!”

“Xiaochu, remember to call me Master from now on.”

“Mm, Master.” Xiaochu nodded forcefully with her little green head, her twin tails swaying vigorously with the motion. In her large, watery eyes there shone the bright light of a small animal.

Earlier, after sleeping with Bai Feng, he had lain on the bed for more than half a day. There was still one and a half days left of rest time. Wang Ling played with Xiaochu for a while, raising her affinity to 10 points, then prepared to head to the free market to sell the E-rank skill scroll “Split Slash” that had dropped from Elliott.

Familiars could be stored in the space bag, but they occupied a slot. Seeing that Xiaochu did not want to leave his side, Wang Ling thought for a moment, then exchanged for a coat with a large pocket on the chest from the Main Brain, tucked Xiaochu into the pocket, and left the private room.