As Su Lin tried to pay more attention, she heard a cool androgynous voice that was neither soft nor loud. But she could not understand the words. After a while, when she could finally comprehend, the voice said: "The prospective host's age and intelligence meets the system's requirements. Binding ancient system 'de ludo scachorum' to host. Discovered host's native language is different from system's language. Commencing translation...translation completed. Scanning host...displaying host's basic stats."
There were many words that seemed to make no sense. As little Su was thinking things through, a floating screen appeared in her mind. Even though she had her eyes closed, she could perfectly "see":
Name: Su Lin (status: weakened)
Age: 5
Level: 0
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 16
Vitality: 0.5
Skills: European chess (introductory)
System mind power: 0/100
Su Lin wondered what these floating figures were. If it were an adult right now faced with this situation, they might be very delighted to be bound to a potentially life-changing "system". But little Su had never played video games, and she did not understand the so-called "system" or its implications. She knew that this was important to her because the light had dispersed her nightmares. She wanted to say "thank you" but couldn't get her voice out. She tried to stretch out her hand to touch the floating screen, but she heard the voice again, "Mind power insufficient to operate system. System shutting down." Then, everything vanished as if they were never there.
Little Su was horrified. Did another person leave after becoming disgusted with her? No, she didn't want this person who chased away the darkness to leave! She had to grab hold of this person and stay together. Otherwise, she would be left alone again. Su Lin fiercely opened her eyes, and saw her chess instructor talking on the phone. She felt muddled again- was everything a dream? Did she just imagine everything? She tried to listen to what was being said, and thus heard Gan Han's conversation with her grandparent.
She had a warm feeling in her stomach when Gao Han spoke for her. But there was also a hollow emotion when she realized her parents were still not back, and they might not be back tomorrow, or the day after, or the month after...She saw that her instructor was angry. She wanted to tell him that it was okay. He didn't have to be angry for her- she will be fine. For some reason, there was a tube attached to her mouth and she couldn't speak. She blinked towards her instructor to convey her sentiment.