In the hookah lounge, Asuna tells a joke that makes Kirito and Sinon laugh and Andrew walks up.
"Yo Kirito. Whatever happened back there and made me crash. I assume the ritual did not go as planned. So I was thinking we could try again. With Asuna and Sinon here too it'll make it a lot easier."
Kirito takes a hit of hookah and vapes.
"Well I mean I can help you get one of the items Andrew. Kinda screwed you out of what you worked for...but it already worked."
"It what?!"
"Yeah after that...ordeal... You get a choice of some super rare potion or a tome. It was kind of vague but like the potion immensely boosts your defense against special attacks and the tome unlocks all skill trees without the need of skill keys. Really saves a lot of time on grinding."
"So you chose the potion right? RIGHT?!"
"EHHHH"
"Damn it Kirito!"
"Look what do you want from me?! I'm the main character and you gotta justify plot armor and being good at everything somehow!"
"You're not good at everything Kirito! I wanted the potion. The potion will make sure none of this Goosebumps shit can effect our character interactions or fuck with our perceptions. You fucked up Kirito!"
"Look man, we can go back to that spot and you can take the potion alright? It's not big deal."
"It IS a big deal Kirito! You know I trust these white bitches about as far as I can throw them!"
Asuna scowls "We're right here you know..."
"I just...I just thought we had something you know? We were a team."
Sinon takes the hookah hose puffing and quietly mutters "and there's another one added to the harem."
"You shut your mouth Sinon! Noone even likes you!"
Kirito gets up.
"Look Andrew, if you're gonna be a dick about it than you can just do the incense ritual all on your own. This game isn't about stats, or optimization, it's about the experience. You don't see that enough in gaming..."
"The only thing I've experienced thus far is disappointment from this game, from everyone I know, and myself!"
"Oh...so basically MOST GAMES out there. Well than no harm no foul, right?"
"I WILL END YOU"
"Whatever... Sinon pass the hose."
"Fine! I'll go myself! Just have an Andrew's big adventure. All alone...on Valentine's Day."
"Yep..."
Andrew sniffles and grabs the hose to open a portal and runs into it. Kirito watches him leave and mutters:
"Baby..."
Andrew is back at where they were and sees the rock he was sitting on. He goes up to it and sees a weird bit of sludge on it and touches it with his hand. It feels warm and smells of copper like blood, but is thick and gooey. Far too thick to be blood unless it was some kind of monster blood.
Andrew says to himself
"Oh God...Goosebumps reference. Monster blood... what have I gotten myself into."
Surrounding him are ooze monsters to the Goosebumps TV anthem from back in the 90s as he tries to chop them down with his axe and not only does the ooze corrode his axe into a rusty heap, it separates into two smaller oozes with less HP but now he's got double trouble. Before long he's running from a bunch of small time oozes wiggling about chasing him slowly.
"Kirito HAAAA'LP!"
Surrounded he picks up a big tree branch and starts waving it. The oozes take no damage from the bludgeoning but it keeps them at bay and obviously doesn't rust the branch.
The incense burns out and Andrew quickly has to make a choice of the potion or the tome. His hand does hover over the potion but he thinks for a moment;
"What if the tome IS the better choice? Skill unlocks could give me access to magic than I wouldn't be in this situation... But I came here for the potion. I know how this game be... it's too big of a commitment to make. This is why Andrea left me!"
As he starts sobbing the developer walks up to him and freezes time for him.
"Your girlfriend and you had the same name? Woooow..."
He sniffles and says "Who are you? And why do you look like Shikamaru?"
The developer rolls his eyes and says;
"Look Andrew. I like you. You know, it doesn't have to be all about Kirito. Kirito is a nice guy but he exists in what is called bad faith."
"Bad...this ain't some Scientology shit is it?"
The developer snorts.
"No no no...bad faith is the mental block we put ourselves through that we don't have choice in the matter. We always have choices Andrew. We can choose to exist in bad faith and allow others to dictate our responses, or we can exist independently of our insecurities, our guilts, even our own morals."
"What are you saying man? I'm black... I'm not big on jrpg villain monologues."
"What I'm SAYING is there is nothing stopping you from making a choice even a bad one besides yourself. You can be Andrew, the side character that nobody cares about, I won't judge you for that. You can let these oozes maul you, fail your mission, have to go find a new weapon. You can grab one of the items and quickly sign out. Hell you could just quit this game entirely and go try to win back the heart of Allie."
"Andrea."
"Whatever... my point is human beings naturally FEAR choices. It might be their greatest fear of all. The fear that there's nothing stopping us from being complete sociopaths if we really wanted too. Oh sure we could be punished for it, ostracized even. But that could happen anyway as you just never know. You never know Andrew. I made this game and I don't know. You can't control how other people will respond. There's just too many variables. That's what those wannabe social Darwinists of the previous sword arts didn't understand. You cannot escape the radical freedom of pointlessness. The universe is not made up of justice, or strength, or even desires. It's pointless Andrew. It's pointless, but the choice is yours. Even if that choice is to do nothing at all but I'd be disappointed if you did that. You dont wanna just give up like your father did do you?"
"Oh HELL NAWW. You're trying to mess with my mind. I'm logging out."
"Go ahead. I am not actually the developer just a core AI here to ease along things. I am programmed to receive. You can checkout anytime...but you can never leave."
Hotel California starts playing in Andrew's head as the shikamaru guy smiles at him. Andrew reaches for the potion and gulps it down.