Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God by Brian McGoldrick

if not all of the comatose gamers were living in the world of Taereun: Battleground of the Damned, in the bodies of our game characters.”
    Urehara-sensei is silent for several minutes, while weighing me with his eyes. I can guess what he is thinking about: am I telling the truth? am I sane? Finally, he seems to come to a decision and nods at me.
    “I don't think the game was ever really a game. The Battleground of the Damned exists and is part of something called the Labyrinth of Yggr. We were in another part of the Labyrinth, called the Lands of Despair. From things that I learned there, I think that we have always been taking over the real bodies of our characters, and their souls were probably destroyed the first time we connected to the game.”
    I begin to tell Urehara-sensei the tale of my time in the Labyrinth of Yggr. Hours pass while I talk and he listens, day fades into night. I tell him enough to let him understand the reasoning behind my suspicions about the game, and why I think that the deaths of their original bodies does not mean that they died. I tell him about the general situation and politics of the former players. I tell him a lot, but I do not tell him all. There are too many things that are entirely too personal, they are none of his business.
    “With the obsidian guardians destroyed, the players should have been able to reach Haven, but I do not know what the results were. Even though I was murdered in the Plains of Despair, Mei was still alive, when it happened.”
    Urehara-sensei's eyes lose focus on me for the first time since I began my tale. I pause to let him adjust to the fact that his beloved daughter might still live, even if she is not in her own body. For as long as I have known them, Urehara-sensei has doted on Mei. He gave her everything she wanted and would never accept that she had done any wrong. If this man has any true weakness, it would be his excessive love for his little bitch of a daughter.
    “Do you believe she is still alive?”
    I shrug. “I have no clue, but she was still alive when I died. I'm going back there, to the Labyrinth of Yggr and to Taereun. I'm going to learn the truth about that fucking bastard that calls himself a god. I'm going to pay some people back for what they've done, both the bad and the good. I don't belong on Earth anymore. Maybe, I never have.”
    “You are telling me all of this for a reason. What do you want?”
    I look Urehara-sensei straight in the eye, without blinking. “I need to use the resources you control. Your zaibatsu is not a simple conglomerate. You have resources and ties to governments that will allow you to get information that I could never get myself. The game was never a real game, so there has to be a link between Earth and Taereun. I need to find where The Nameless, Inc. set up their magic technology and break in. There should be a way to physically travel between Earth and the Labyrinth of Yggr, and I think it will be in that location.”
    Urehara-sensei just stares back at me for several long minutes. “I will help you, but there are two conditions. First, you will teach what you know about using ki. Second, we will both go to this Labyrinth of Yggr.”
    After a few moments, I realize my mouth is hanging open and close it, with an audible clacking of teeth. “Sensei, do you understand that there might be no easy way back, maybe no way back at all?”
    Urehara-sensei grins. “After you and Mei started to play Taereun: Battleground of the Damned, I too created a character in that game. I used it to test my martial arts in what I thought would be as close to a real battle as I would ever come. I never played games in my youth, and that world fascinates me. I do not intend to return. Nobuhiko has control of my companies. He will probably be even better at managing them than I have been. My wife died giving birth to Mei. If not for the patents and technology my companies control, you, I and all my other students would be