You Ditched an R-Rank, Now That I’m an SSR, You Wanna Cry?-Chapter 1: I became a character in the gacha pool and was pulled?

"Final ten-pull, already at pity counter, please give me a high-tier contracted spirit!"
At Chuanbei Spirit Tamer Academy.
On the summoning platform, a girl wearing a student uniform with delicate features clasped her hands together, bowed three times devoutly, then declared with desperate determination:
"Come out!!!"
Her last remaining 1,680 spirit stones vanished completely.
Ten streaks of light resembling shooting stars arced across the sky, descending from the heavens to land on the summoning platform.
One of them was the distinctive golden glow that signaled summoning a contracted spirit from the card pool!
This radiance instantly ignited the atmosphere at the scene.
The young spirit tamers watching from the sidelines began discussing animatedly:
"Golden light, the pity counter character is here!"
"That Jiang Li really has terrible luck, needing 180 pulls to get something, what a massive loss."
"I wonder what tier of contracted spirit it is, could it be an SSR?"
"Do you think SSRs grow on trees? How many SSR contracted spirits does our Great Xia even have? Characters of that tier, when cultivated, are equivalent to national strategic weapons!"
"If she gets a B-rank, the Jiang family ancestors would be celebrating in their graves!"
"......"
On the summoning platform.
Jiang Li stared fixedly at that golden light descending from the sky, so tense she could barely breathe.
She had nearly exhausted all her current spirit stones and resources to summon from the Advanced Multiverse Creatures Card Pool.
Although this card pool had extremely low drop rates, it could yield high-tier contracted spirits, with even a chance at the legendary SSR!
Jiang Li had always been fiercely competitive, and her luck had never been particularly bad.
So, she decided to gamble big!
As long as she got a contracted spirit above C-tier this time, she would accept it.
Come on!
Let's gamble!!!
Jiang Li took a deep breath, eyes wide open, wanting to see the contracted spirit's tier the moment the golden light faded.
The entire venue fell silent, the air itself seeming to freeze.
Everyone's gaze focused on the golden light, sharing in the anticipation.
This wasn't a game where summoned characters only existed in virtual worlds - these were real beings you could take home and interact with daily in reality!
Who wouldn't be excited?
Under everyone's watchful eyes.
The golden light on the platform slowly dissipated, revealing a humanoid silhouette first.
Instantly, exclamations erupted throughout the venue:
"Holy crap, a humanoid contracted spirit!"
"Humanoid contracted spirits are always high quality!"
"An ancient hero or mythical war god, or perhaps some other humanoid exotic race?!"
"Humanoid contracted spirits are the most popular type since you can communicate without barriers. If they have good looks and cool style, it's basically like pulling a husband or wife!"
"Jiang Li is about to take off!"
"......"
The Multiverse Creatures Card Pool contained numerous contracted spirit races.
Besides humans, there were elves, dragonkin, beastfolk, undead... and all sorts of strange varieties.
Humanoid contracted spirits were generally easier to cultivate and aligned with ordinary people's aesthetics.
Jiang Li's delicate face flushed with excitement, her breathing rapid!
She stared intently at the humanoid contracted spirit's head, wanting to see its tier first.
A contracted spirit's tier determined its strength.
Finally, the golden light completely faded...
A handsome young man wearing flip-flops and a "Chinese Youth" T-shirt appeared, standing on the platform with a completely bewildered expression.
And the gray "R" symbol above his head burned itself into everyone's vision.
Xia Yuan gazed dazedly at the unfamiliar surroundings, his face full of confusion.
Where had this transported him?
Was this even still China?!
The entire venue erupted in uproar, utterly shocked:
"Holy crap, it's actually an R-card!"
"Damn! The lowest tier trash? This is even rarer than an SSR!"
"Hahaha! Jiang Li got a god-tier pull! A century-rare R-tier humanoid garbage!"
"Jiang Li really is the ultimate unlucky player, 180 pulls for a pity character, only to get snatched at the last moment by this piece of R-card crap..."
"Pfft! Still wearing flip-flops, skinny arms and legs, decent-looking though, probably can't even beat a slime..."
"......"
Contracted spirits were classified into various grades based on their combat strength and potential.
From lowest to highest: R, F, E, D, C, B, A, SR, SSR!
And R-cards were essentially worthless contracted spirits.
No spirit tamer wanted to spend time contracting and cultivating them because their combat power was so low they might not even beat the spirit tamer themselves...
They weren't even worthy of being used as fodder cards to level up other contracted spirit characters!
Xia Yuan listened to those strange discussions from below, his mind reeling.
He heard several familiar keywords, and as a veteran gacha collection game player, his DNA stirred.
"Pity counter?"
"R-card?"
"SSR?"
"Did I transmigrate into a card pool character and get summoned by someone?"
Xia Yuan had played character collection games for so long, but never imagined he would one day become a card pool character that someone else would pull...
Just then, a sudden mechanical voice sounded in his mind:
[Ding!]
[Congratulations host on transmigrating to a world where everyone summons and cultivates contracted spirits, successfully activating the Ultimate Shapeshifting Combat Power System!]
[Host's current tier is R. As long as you successfully contract with a spirit tamer, you can activate shapeshifting mode and receive the new player gift pack, rewarding one random SSR combat power ceiling character template]
[Killing monsters accumulates reward bar progress, allowing draws for new SSR ceiling character templates...]
[Current reward bar progress: 0%...]
[Other functions not yet available, stay tuned...]
[Current mission: Host is currently weak like a college student. Quickly find a big fool... ahem, spirit tamer to sign a contract. Contracted spirits cannot exist long-term in this world without a spirit tamer's spiritual energy maintenance, they will disappear and vanish!]
Xia Yuan's eyes lit up - the transmigrator's blessing had finally arrived!
After hearing the system's explanation, he understood.
Although he was currently an R-card, as long as he successfully contracted, he could transform into an SSR and gain super combat power!
Moreover, he could accumulate progress by killing monsters to draw new SSR templates later.
Didn't this mean that pulling him equaled pulling all SSR characters?!
How was this a trash character card? This was practically a god-tier character with unlimited growth potential!
So freaking overpowered!
Xia Yuan snapped out of his thoughts and instinctively looked at the person who had summoned him, wanting to see which lucky individual was fortunate enough to pull such an amazing card pool character like him.
The moment he lifted his gaze, he saw a delicate oval face.
However, the excited and expectant expression that had been on her face was visibly twisting, turning livid and ugly!
Jiang Li stared incredulously at the "R" above his head as if seeing the most filthy symbol in the world, completely devastated.
An R-card?!
She, Jiang Li, as a descendant of the noble spirit tamer aristocratic family with generations of talent, had actually summoned the lowest-tier, most worthless trash character!
"No——————!!!"
Jiang Li screamed, nearly breaking down, startling even Xia Yuan...
Hearing the mocking and schadenfreude-filled voices from below, then looking at this ordinary yet confident R-card contracted spirit before her, she seemed to find an outlet for her emotions, shouting loudly:
"Impossible!"
"How could I, Jiang Li, summon trash like you!"
"Garbage!"
"Wretched thing!"
Her eyes slightly red, she glared at Xia Yuan with bitter resentment:
"That was my 180 pulls!"
"My golden pity counter contracted spirit!"
"All my spirit stones!"
"My brilliant spirit tamer future!"
"All ruined by you, this R-card!"