Chapter 20: The Astonishing Fourth-Wall Break

Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players 

Chapter 20: The Astonishing Fourth-Wall Break

What does this mean?

It knows I loaded a save?

It's talking to me. It's not talking to the character in the game?

Everything I've done has been taken into account?

Wu Tian suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He even instinctively turned around and glanced at the empty office behind him.

Clearly, the little flower in the game wasn't talking to the protagonist.

It was talking directly to him—the player sitting in front of the computer.

It knew what he had done. It even knew that he had loaded a save and started over.

Although Wu Tian knew perfectly well that this was simply a game mechanic, he was still shocked.

And what did the little flower mean by what it had said?

Did it possess this kind of power as well?

What exactly was "determination"?

While exploring the castle, he had encountered several star-like objects that glowed brightly.

Whenever he examined them, he would basically receive the same message:

"It fills you with determination."

In an instant, countless questions flooded Wu Tian's mind.

But more than anything, he felt amazed.

At first, he had thought this was nothing more than an ordinary RPG.

But with the appearance of the little flower, it was as though the fourth wall had been shattered.

What else would the game have in store later?

With that thought in mind, Wu Tian continued playing.

One distinctive character after another appeared throughout the game.

Sans, who shook his hand while secretly holding a whoopee cushion, and Papyrus, who was obsessed with using puzzles to stop him, left a particularly deep impression on him.

The seemingly lazy Sans loved making skeleton-related puns and using them to tease his brother, Papyrus.

His brother, meanwhile, was extremely enthusiastic about using puzzles and mechanisms to obstruct the protagonist.

The amusing part was that whenever the player became stuck on a puzzle, the skeleton would actually reveal the answer himself.

Then there was Undyne, a somewhat chuunibyou-like fish warrior who chased him relentlessly for much of the journey. Eventually, when they reached the lava area, she collapsed on the ground from dehydration. Conveniently, there was a water cooler right beside her, giving the player the choice of whether or not to save her.

In the laboratory, Dr. Alphys appeared somewhat awkward and shy, practically the embodiment of an introverted otaku.

Later, during the quiz battle against the robot she had created, the doctor would even use her hands to secretly gesture toward the correct answers for the player.

And based on the answer to the robot's final question, the player could also discover that she had feelings for Undyne, the fish warrior who had been hunting the protagonist.

And the performance before the battle against the robot beneath the moonlight was simply astonishing.

But what truly shocked Wu Tian was the conversation he had with Sans in the magnificent golden corridor, just before facing the game's final boss.

From the very beginning, Wu Tian had simply assumed that Undertale used the same basic framework as an ordinary RPG.

Although the appearance of the little flower had given him his first real sense of shock and wonder, he had still played the game according to conventional RPG logic.

It was an RPG, after all. Wasn't fighting monsters and leveling up perfectly normal?

As for the Spider Lady and the other monsters he encountered along the way, he had spared some if they seemed likable enough. But the ones he found annoying or unpleasant had all been cut down without hesitation.

But Sans's words now made Wu Tian realize that he had completely misunderstood the game.

EXP wasn't "experience points" at all.

It was short for "Execution Points"—and translated literally, it meant points for carrying out executions.

Likewise, LOVE wasn't a conventional level.

It was short for "Level of Violence."

Every time he killed a monster in the game, his EXP and LOVE increased.

And at this moment, his LV had reached Level 11.

At that instant, Wu Tian also remembered what the goat mother had said at the very beginning about becoming friends with the monsters.

Clearly, the game had been dropping hints from the very start.

Then came the final boss battle against the King of the Underground, the massive bull-like king.

He didn't look evil at all. In fact, he seemed quite friendly, repeatedly asking before the battle whether Wu Tian was ready.

If Wu Tian said he wasn't ready, the king would even respond kindly that, actually, he wasn't ready either.

But after passing through the final door and confirming that he was ready, everything changed.

An intense BGM suddenly rang out.

【A strange light fills the room.】

【The light of dawn shines through the barrier.】

【It seems your journey has finally reached its end.】

【You are filled with "determination."】

The narration slowly faded away.

The king opened his eyes, accompanied by his words:

"Goodbye, human."

In an instant, he seemed like a god of war descending from the heavens. His crimson cape billowed behind him as he swung the trident in his hand, smashing the button labeled "Mercy" to pieces.

"Your mercy is shattered, and so is mine. There will be no running away. This battle will end only when one of us dies!"

The final battle was extremely difficult. Although Wu Tian had played some bullet-dodging games before, he still found himself in danger at every turn.

After finally defeating the king, he was given the choice to either kill him or spare him.

At that moment, Wu Tian remembered the words of the goat mother and Sans, and chose to show mercy.

Faced with a protagonist who had spared his life, the king was clearly surprised. He said that he was willing to take care of the protagonist together with the goat mother. They could all form a new family in the underground world.

Everything seemed so warm and beautiful.

But in the very next moment, a flash of a blade streaked across the screen.

Accompanied by the king's astonished expression, the little flower appeared.

It killed the king.

"You idiot. You still haven't learned your lesson. In this world, it's kill or be killed."

As the little flower let out a sinister, evil laugh, Wu Tian stared in bewilderment as the entire game suddenly crashed and closed.

What was going on?

A bug?

Why had the game disappeared?

Before Wu Tian could remain confused for long, the game automatically restarted.

Even the opening animation had become strange.

When he entered the save screen, something even more bizarre happened.

The save file wasn't his.

It read:

"FLOWEY, LV: 9999."

This was the little flower's save file.

Wu Tian selected Continue.

His character appeared in the game against a completely dark background.

He walked over to the star-shaped save point, and his own save information appeared on the screen.

But the next moment, the screen suddenly began to shake.

Blood-red cracks spread outward from the center of the save information.

Finally, three words appeared:

【SAVE FILE DELETED】

As the save file shattered, the little flower appeared on the screen once again.

After devouring the souls of six human children, the little flower now proclaimed itself a god.

Yet its appearance in the game was that of a grotesque and horrifying monster.

This was the true final boss battle.

This battle was even more difficult than the previous fight against the king.

After Wu Tian died, the game displayed a GAME OVER screen, accompanied by a line of text:

【This is all just a nightmare, and you will never wake up.】

In addition to the text, there was also the little flower's terrifying, maniacal laughter. The game screen was soon covered with the words "HAHAHAHAHAHA," before the game crashed and automatically closed once again.

When Wu Tian reopened the game, the little flower continued speaking directly to the person sitting in front of the computer, saying things that were utterly despairing.

For example:

【You think killing you just once would be enough for me?】

【There is no such thing as a perfect ending in this world.】

The only way to defeat the little flower was to keep persevering.

Wu Tian had to continue fighting until he awakened the other human souls that the little flower had devoured. Only then would it lose the ability to manipulate and retrieve save files, allowing him to finally defeat this terrifying boss.

After successfully defeating the little flower, the player could choose either to kill it or spare it.

However, regardless of whether the little flower was killed or spared, the ending was the same.

The only difference was that if the player spared the little flower, it would reveal how to unlock the Pacifist Route.

As the final lines of text appeared, the game officially came to an end.

But Wu Tian, sitting in front of the computer, still hadn't fully recovered from the shock the game had given him.

Amazing.

At that moment, that was the only word he could think of.

It was simply amazing.

Breaking the fourth wall, deleting the player's save file, shutting down the game itself, and the little flower's dialogue—all of it was astonishing.

For a brief moment while playing, Wu Tian had even felt as though there really was an underground world like this, and that characters such as the little flower genuinely existed somewhere.

And after the initial amazement came an even stronger sense of curiosity.

His conversation with Sans in that magnificent golden corridor had already revealed the truth.

What was supposedly LOVE was actually the Level of Violence, while EXP stood for Execution Points.

So then, what were the game's other two endings like?

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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.

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