Hey man it's great to hear from you again! I'm glad you're still interested in this game even after all this time, it makes me really happy so thank you! I'm 30 minutes from flying out of the country for a month so I'll try to answer all your queries.
When it comes to secret stuff, even if they're shitposts or memes, they're still relevant in some way to the plot. Anything in-game is 100% related, anything in the files is sort of a mixed bag but generally it's just me getting bored and making jokes at my own expense. Also the phone number, from what I remember, doesn't work but you're right, I'll take it out as soon as possible anyway.
When it comes to the variables, Ferarum uses persistent.variables almost the entire time so that the player doesn't actually need to save the game. For that specific sequence I think there was an issue tying persistent variables to numbers, but you can see for the Interror portion (in it's own script) that I did use numbers instead of words. That's a good suggestion though, I'll have another look once I'm back.
Aw fuck, bloody knew something was gonna happen lol. Renpy's a bitch when it comes to capitalization so that W is supposed to be lowercase.
Thanks for all the help man, I honestly really appreciate it all and especially code reviews! Have a nice rest of your day and stay away from cute goth girls in cafes alright?