“So what don't you get?""The way people talk and act like they're crazy in love, and then, ding, suddenly they'renot. It's like it was all just pretend. Like it's just a game."He crunched on an ice cube. "Well, sometimes it is just a game.""Then how are you supposed to believe someone when it isn't?”

“You have agency, yes, but what of it? It is just a game. But when a game does this well, you lose track of your manipulation of it, and its manipulation of you, and instead feel inserted so deeply inside the game that your mind, and your feelings, become as seemingly crucial to its operation as its many millions of lines of code. It is the sensation that the game itself is as suddenly, unknowably alive as you are.”

“Isn't language amazing? I can't get over it. Sometimes you can just say things and its like a bomb that blows all your clothes off and suddenly there you are naked. I don't know if its disgusting or beautiful.”

“It's funny how you take things like electricity for granted. You hit the button that turns everything on and it just comes on. You get used to that and it just works every single time. So what happens when it suddenly doesn't? things very well could get messy.”

“People say things like "it wasn't supposed to go this way" and "this isn't what I wanted." They're just making noise. There's no such thing as "supposed to," and what you want doesn't matter. All that matters is what happened.”

“Keisuke: "It's alright for you to kill someone?"Akira: "As long as they have tags. According to the rules, if there's three people present, it's an official battle. I'm not sure how you're supposed to start it, though."Keisuke: "So killing people is just a game, huh?"Akira: "It's the only way to survive.”