AGN and stellar continuum models adopted in the CLOUDY simulations. Upper panel: AGN normal model with T = 1.0 × 10⁵ K, α_uv = −1.09, α_x = −1.0 (Γ ≃ 2.0), and α_ox = −1.4, representative of luminous quasars with typical X-ray emission, shown as a black line. The red line shows our AGN soft model with T = 1.0 × 10⁵ K, α_uv = −1.09, α_x = −1.7, and α_ox = −2.2, chosen to mimic the steeper and X-ray–weaker spectra representative of WLQs. The orange line shows the BPASS starburst model. The vertical dashed lines indicate the ionization thresholds for O⁺⁺ (35.1 eV) and O³⁺ (54.9 eV). Lower panel: Ratio of the two continua, highlighting that the AGN soft model strongly suppresses the hard ionizing photon budget compared to the AGN normal case.