Chapter 34: Let’s Reactivate Onlife

The following day, I told Judeth I was going out for a walk. In truth, I was meeting the others, we were going to find Takayuki.

He was being kept in an underground prison with high-tech security.

The best part? We didn’t need any bombs or explosives like Barnaby kept on suggesting. All I had to do was glitch in, grab him, and get out. Simple.

Once we arrived, I phased straight through the prison’s defenses, following the map Michael had given me.

I avoided every guards, cameras and lasers, like a world renowned spy or a ninja.
I had to locate him in the deepest parts of the prisons
Where eventually, I finally found him.

His cell wasn’t made of bars but reinforced plexiglass. A single beam of light shone down on him as he sat slumped forward, elbows on his knees, like he was drowning in his own thoughts.
It felt a bit they overdone it with the his cells. I know that he sent thousands people to their doom, but in the end he is just a human with a brains.

I walked up to the glass and knocked. There was no response.

I knocked again. Harder. I vene began punching the glass with my bare fist. Finally, he lifted his head, glaring at me.

"What do you want?" Takayuki snapped.

I smirked faintly. "Hello there, Mr. Schneider."

His eyes narrowed. "Oh, it’s you. The infamous Glitchwalker. What are you doing here?"

I leaned closer to the glass.

"It’s quite obvious, I came here to break you out."

He laughed, completely unhinged, bitter. "And why in the world would you do that?"

I kept my cool. "Because we have to go back to Ashalondaria. We have to stop Niobeorth."

Takayuki laughed again, not even looking at me this time. It sounded less like amusement, more like madness.

"That name… you don’t understand how much I want to strangle that bastard. Because of him, my plan was destroyed."

He suddenly hurled the chair across the cell, the crash echoing through the chamber.

"Plan? What plan? To create a hyper realistic virtual reality game? Well to be honest you kind of made it" I asked.

"NO YOU—sigh. At this point, I have no reason to hide it."

Takayuki finally looked me in the eye. "My plan—or rather mine and my wife’s—was to send everyone from Omnikuro into another world. A safer one than this god-forsaken world."

I froze. "What? You mean from the very beginning… you planned to send us all to Ashalondaria?"

"There were multiple other options, not just Ashalondaria," he muttered.

"Then why Ashalondaria?"

Takayuki lowered his gaze. "Because that’s where my wife was sent, when we ran the experiment."

His wife? My thoughts flashed back to Diana’s mother. Two women, both sent to Ashalondaria. Was it really coincidence?

"I knew she was there," Takayuki continued. "But I couldn’t track her down—until Merewyn spoke to me through the Everett Stone. For a while, she gave me hope. She told me to send a thousand people to Ashalondaria, to widen the bridge between our worlds. But it was Niobeorth. His lies. I believed them. And I sent over a thousand people to their deaths… all for the chance to see her again."

I didn’t know if I should pity him. But it was clear now, that Onlife existed because he wanted to find his wife.

“So I have to ask—why did you mask Onlife as a virtual reality game? If it was meant to be a gate bridging two worlds, why disguise it as entertainment?”

Takayuki replied, his tone calm but measured.

“It was to prepare you for any possible circumstances you might face in another world. Think of it as training—an introduction to their culture, and to the dangers that awaited you on your path.”

I let out a part of sarcasm that I was holding back.

“So you trained us to fight monsters… but not to endure the reality of being test subjects for your secret project. Quite genius of you.”

Takayuki’s expression faltered at my words. He didn’t answer, retreating into silence, withdrawing into himself once more.

I sighed. “Listen, I’m sorry. That was sarcasm talking. I wasn’t trying to insult you. So please… just hear me out.”

But he kept his eyes on the wall, lost in his own regrets.

"My wife, lost in another world," he said, voice breaking. "And my daughter… I should’ve held on to her. Should’ve let go of the past. Instead, I left her in that damn orphanage. My obsession killed her."

Takayuki’s eyes filled with tears. "This is my punishment. To rot in this cell. And listen well, Glitchwalker—I will never reactivate Onlife."

His voice cracked. "Diana… my precious daughter… your mother will never forgive me."

I stiffened. "Wait… what did you just say?"

Takayuki didn’t hear, too far gone in his grief.

I banged on the glass until he snapped at me. "What do you want? Leave me alone!"

"Did you say Diana?"

He glared. "Why do you care about my daughter’s name?"

Pieces clicked together in my head. "Is your wife’s name… Bellarose?"

His expression shifted instantly. "How in the world do you know that?"

I smiled for a moment, 
"Because your daughter told me. She’s alive—still in Ashalondaria. Niobeorth has her."

Instead of relief, rage twisted his face. "That’s not funny. Don’t you dare joke about her."

"I’m not joking!" I shouted. "She told me herself. She went to Ashalondaria to find her mother. She said her father abandoned her in an orphanage, chasing after his wife he couldn’t let go of."

Takayuki stared, desperate now. "Then tell me—do you know her surname?"

"Surname? Why the hell would that matter? Is your wife’s name not enough?"

"Because the most important thing my daughter ever told me… was signed with it. A name given from someone she cared about at the orphanage. The only way I’ll know you’re telling the truth."

I hesitated. I had no clue. What in the world am I supposed to say?

Takayuki leaned closer. "Two words. The first word is ‘Daisy.’"

"Daisy…?" My heart stopped. I then blurted the name without thinking, "You mean Daisydukes?"
His eyes widened. "So you do know! Then she’s alive…" For the first time, hope flickered in his face. "Let me out."

I phased straight through the plexiglass, his jaw dropping in shock. Grabbing him by the arm, I pulled him with me, sprinting through walls and barriers until we burst out of the prison.

“How in the world did you do that?” Takayuki asked perplexed.
“t’s all because of Onlife.”

As we ran, my mind spun. Diana wasn’t just Takayuki’s daughter, she was Daisydukes. The girl I thought I killed. The girl I mourned. She was alive… and trapped in Ashalondaria.
This gives me more reason to save her.
The sky was dark, rain pattering lightly as I brought Takayuki to the others. Together, we pushed toward his company headquarters.

The building was under siege, tons of officers stationed at every corner. Fortunately, Takayuki knew the place inside out, guiding us through hidden routes until, with my glitching abilities, we slipped inside his laboratory.

The lab looked like a storm had torn through it. Papers scattered like leaves, machines unplugged, cables snaking across the floor like wild vines.

Takayuki went straight to work, while the others stood on watch. Fingers flying across the controls, he reactivated the entire system.

In an instant, the room transformed. Black panels hummed to life, neon lines glowing across walls and floors, casting the space in an otherworldly light. It felt less like a lab and more like stepping into a cyberpunk utopia, dark, sleek, futuristic, like something carved out of the void of space.

Without a word, Takayuki placed a strange headgear on me, like a VR set, then strapped cables around my body as if preparing to electrocute me. Last, he fastened a device at the back of my neck, right where the Everett Stone rested.

"Wait—are you already sending me to Ashalondaria?" I asked.

He shook his head, still typing furiously. "Not yet. I’m trying to understand you. Why can you summon the HUD in real life when we’re neither in Ashalondaria nor Onlife? For a moment, I thought Niobeorth’s doing… but it’s not."

He tapped another key, muttering. "Your body has absorbed the game’s code through the Everett Stone. You’re practically a living avatar—bringing the system into reality itself. And based on your history… you built your pod from scratch. Since it wasn’t perfected, you accidentally created that ‘blue glitch’ ability. The Stone combined with your faulty pod gave you power to break Onlife’s laws and drag them into real life."

"So it’s all just… a mishap?"

"Not only that. The Stone itself is beyond me. I’ve studied it for years and still don’t understand its full nature. All I know is—it bridges worlds. It turns imagination into reality."

He typed faster, then glanced at me. "Activate your glitching ability. Just hold it for a moment."

I obeyed, letting my body fracture into glitching molecules. "I can only keep this for a minute. After that—it will hurt."

"That’s fine. I just need enough time."

Aster, standing nearby, frowned. "What are you doing to him?"

Takayuki didn’t answer. His eyes stayed on the screens. "Just hold on. Stay in this form."

"Thirty seconds already," I gritted out. The pain was building, my body screaming.

The others shouted at Takayuki to stop, but he ignored them, activating systems, typing commands.

My limit was near. My limbs felt like they were tearing apart. I clenched my teeth, I gripped my fist, eyes shut, trying to endure.

"Stay with me," Takayuki urged. "Just a little longer."

Then suddenly, something surged inside me. A violent jolt. Sparks and electricity coursed through every vein. My insides felt ready to burst.

The others yelled, rushing him, but Takayuki’s focus didn’t break.

The agony peaked, until, all at once, everything went dark.