Sunlight bled through the window of Allen's small apartment. Luckily, I had woken up in this world, which meant I really did transmigrate.
Valentina had woken up long before me. At first, I didn't notice anything strange about her, but when I looked again, I realized that both her chest and her height had increased significantly.
According to her, the small form was a side effect of using a lot of mana, and since she and her brother had been training with their sister, she had to use all her mana to escape that hellhole.
"Hey, pass me the sugar."
Raising my gaze, my eyes met Valentina's, her hands outstretched.
I glanced at the sugar beside my plate of cereal and passed it to her.
"Thanks," she said, sprinkling a little into her plate. "Anyway, it looks like you've awakened successfully, and you even have an active core already."
'An active core? What's that?'
During my early morning conversation with Valentina, I noticed that a lot had changed in this world. The main characters were still the same, but the language, power system, and even politics had shifted.
"I just want to ask, what exactly is an active core?"
Valentina raised a brow, her spoon nearly slipping from her hand. She shut her eyes for a moment and rubbed her temples with one hand. "How should I put this? Well, an active core is a core that's active."
I blinked, then facepalmed. "Thanks for the explanation."
Val's face brightened at my obvious sarcasm, but I didn't waste my energy pointing it out.
Although her explanation was vague, I kind of got the point.
In this world, there were most certainly three types of cores: non-existent cores, which normal humans had; dormant cores, which those who awakened with mana possessed; and active cores, which all awakened individuals had.
Putting two and two together, having an active core meant I was one of the chosen ones, my core was already working even before I awakened my system and unique skill.
"Val, I get the part about the active core, but if it just shows whether you can use your core well or not, does it really matter whether you awaken it early or later?"
Valentina tapped her spoon on her lips thoughtfully. "You're right, it doesn't really matter. But it's been shown time and time again that those who have an active core early tend to be more talented than the others."
She pointed her spoon at me with a grin. "Plus, your case is different. You're just like my big brother."
'Like Jake Kim, huh?' I straightened my back. I didn't know who Jake Kim was in this world yet, so acting like I understood what she meant by "like my brother" would just make me suspicious.
"I don't know who your brother is, but from your tone, it sounds like a good thing."
"Yes, of course it's a good thing. Do you know how many would kill their own family just for the chance to be half as talented as my big bro? Hehehe. Of course, I'm just as talented too, but no one talks about me since I'm a half-demon."
She nodded to herself, impressed by her own greatness. "Anyway, both you and my big bro have active cores, and they're white."
"White?"
"Yes, white," she said, pointing at the ceiling. "Cores are divided into four colors according to how strong your unique skill is, or would be in your case. Bronze is the lowest, then silver, gold, and finally white."
I lowered my gaze, placing my hand beneath my chin. 'That explains why my core is white…'
Raising my eyes to meet Val's, I asked, "So what's your own color?"
She shook her head. "Demons don't have the same progression as humans. Even I, as a half-demon, follow my own path."
We dropped our spoons into our plates and placed our hands together for a short prayer. After she finished, she continued, "Demon cores go from Orange, to Red, to Purple, and finally Black. I have a black core, so I'll have one of the strongest abilities even among demons."
I nodded.
There are two stages of awakening, the first gives mana, and the second grants unique skills, a system, and transports you into a rift world.
When you awaken, you start at level 0 and must reach level 1 while leveling up your unique skills and learning new ways to apply them.
Cores indicate relative strength, whose ability is stronger than another's within the same rank.
The two most important pieces of information I learned were how leveling up worked and a bit about programming.
According to both Valentina and the internet, each awakened individual has different starting stats. Some might have more strength than others, while some have more speed, but they usually fall within the same general range.
When you level up, the system gives you fifty percent of your combined stats from the previous level as level-up points, which you can use to upgrade your stats.
That meant the higher the rank, the more absurd the difference between one level and the next. For example, a level 49 with 3,000 total stats would reach 4,500 at level 50, and 6,750 at level 51, more than twice as strong as someone two levels below.
'So no messing with demons or hunters at higher levels.'
The second thing I found out was that although runes could be translated into code, most people couldn't put them together like we did on Earth.
At first, I thought it was due to a lack of programming knowledge. But after a risky experiment teaching Valentina a bit of programming and having her try to combine the runes, I realized it wasn't a matter of knowledge. The difference was that I saw them as simple code, while others saw them as an undecipherable language.
This raised the question, was I the one who was different, or could any Earthling entering this world do the same?
Research showed it wasn't the latter. Humans in this world couldn't translate runes into code. One of the first hunters could, and humans just learned what he wrote in his book.
If that human had been from Earth, like me, it meant someone else from Earth might have transmigrated into this world at some point but hadn't used that knowledge to their advantage.
It could only mean that while I and the man who translated the runes could see them as binary numbers, functions, variables, and conditional statements, the rest saw only gibberish.
'That means this has something to do with a title.'
In games and novels, titles always come with their own perks. If I had the same title as in my past life, the Legendary Programmer, and its effect let me see and understand code better than others, it made sense that I could read it.
I concluded that my theory was likely correct because, although the other man could translate runes, it was never recorded that he could actually use them. He died at the hands of someone whom, if he had mastered codes, he would not have lost to.
'He probably invented a set of codes, so his title was essential for translation.'
"Allen!"
My head snapped up at Valentina's voice. She waved her hand in front of my face, tilting her head.
"What?"
"I've been calling you for the past minute, but you didn't respond."
I ran a hand through my hair. "Sorry, I was thinking about something."
There was no need to overthink it, I could check my stats once I had a system.
"So," Val said with a smile, "are you ready for training?"
I nodded slowly. 'I guess it's time to meet the protagonist.'
I picked up the tablet and messaged Quincy to meet me at the same place where Jake Kim was meeting Valentina.
It was time to enter the main story and prepare for what lay ahead.