Floor 8 - Snowy trail.

JaK thought long and hard about her proposal; he seriously weighed both options and considered it, but then thought against it as he spoke. "Bow...No. We can't. Your reputation would be tainted if you were seen with me like that..In that way. As friends, yes, but as anything else would be a jeopardy to you." He said sadly, seeing tears well up in her eyes. JaK then grabbed her by the cheek and gently kissed her lips. "After we clear this game. I WILL be with you...Wait for me. I promise, I will come for you when this is all said and done." JaK hugged her tightly and said nothing else, he just wanted to enjoy these last few moments they had. He just wanted to enjoy something for once, before it was taken from him here.

JaK sat quietly, holding her for a second longer and then looked upon the message with her. Both players had a deep grimace upon their face as he cradled her hand in his own and then gently kissed it, before grabbing Bow's index finger and moving it towards the message. Each moment it inched closer, a memory he had with her during the last 24 hours popped into his memory like a highlight reel: There was the moment they first met, their first kiss, her saving JaK, him saving her, him blocking the Abominable king's attack for her, their first team up attack on the yeti, their private moments, watching his ceiling, him giving her his coat, her smile, her whispering into his ear, holding his hand, her familiar; Bubbles, and the image he first saw of her after healing him with tears of joy in her eyes that JaK was still alive. All these thoughts, following one after the other as he just stared into her rattling eyes. The images were like fireworks, going off around her face, wonderfully in sync until they stopped abruptly as her finger pressed the accept button on Asuna's invite to the Blood Knights, signaling that all of this..had come to an end.

JaK's hand reached out to her as she disappeared from his grasp in a burst of pixels. His hand quivered for a moment and then pressed against his lips as he sat for a long while. They were still warm from her embrace...As the warmth faded and his palm grasped the sheets on his bed, a single tear dropped from his eyes, while his bangs blocked his face from view due to his head dipping in sorrow.

His hand curled into a fist out of anguish and sorrow as he pounded it into the cushioning of his furniture and screamed out; loud, long, and hard. The sorrow of knowing that he would spend the rest of his days in this world alone, ripped at his insides as if they were actually there and that this body, and these emotions weren't just digital manifestations. All grew quiet as JaK sat alone in the dark, nothing left to say. He was a beater, who tried to cheat the system set for Beta-players and failed.