What does that mean?
It knows I loaded a save?
It's talking to me, not the character in the game?
Everything I've done has been tracked?
William suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He even looked behind him at the empty office out of instinct.
Clearly, the in-game character Flowey wasn't talking to the game's protagonist.
She was talking directly to him—the player sitting in front of the screen.
She knew what he had done. She even knew that he loaded an old save.
Even though William knew this was just part of the game's design...
He was still shocked.
And what did Flowey mean when she said those things?
That she had this power too?
What is "determination," really?
While exploring the castle, he'd come across some glowing star-shaped icons.
When he examined them, the message that usually popped up was: It fills you with determination.
In that moment, countless questions popped into his mind.
But even more than that, he felt amazed.
At first, he thought this was just a regular RPG.
But with Flowey's appearance, it felt like the fourth wall had been completely shattered.
What else would happen next?
With that feeling in his heart, William kept playing.
One unique character after another appeared in the game.
There was Sans, the skeleton who shook his hand with a fart cushion, and Papyrus, who loved using puzzles to stop him. These two skeleton brothers left a deep impression.
Sans looked super lazy and loved telling skeleton puns just to mess with his brother, Papyrus.
Papyrus, on the other hand, was totally obsessed with puzzles and traps to block the player's progress.
The funny part? When a puzzle actually managed to trap him, Papyrus would sometimes give away the answer himself.
Then there was Undyne, a fish-like warrior with a bit of a dramatic flair, who chased him relentlessly. Later, in the lava area, she passed out from dehydration—and right next to her was a water cooler. At that point, the player could choose whether or not to help her.
In the lab, Dr. Alphys came across as awkward and shy — the perfect image of a shut-in.
Later, during the quiz battle with the robot she built, the doctor would even secretly gesture the right answers to the player.
And based on the final quiz question, it's also clear she has a crush on Undyne, the fish-like warrior who's been chasing the main character.
Then there was that ridiculous stage performance right before the robot boss fight under the moonlight — it totally caught William off guard.
But what truly shocked him was the conversation with Sans in the gold-lined hallway just before the final boss fight.
Up to that point, William had assumed Undertale just followed normal RPG rules.
Even though Flowey's appearance earlier had surprised and impressed him...
He had still played the game the same way he played any RPG.
In RPGs, it's normal to fight monsters and level up, right?
He let some enemies live if they seemed okay, like the spider girl or a few creatures he met on the way. But if something annoyed him or seemed like trouble, he didn't hesitate to kill it.
But now, Sans's words made him realize he had completely misunderstood the whole thing.
EXP wasn't short for "experience points" — it stood for "execution points."
And LOVE wasn't a regular level — it actually meant "Level of Violence."
Every time he killed a monster, his execution points and violence level went up.
Now, his LV had reached 11.
In that moment, William remembered what the goat mom had said at the start about being friends with monsters. The game had been dropping hints the whole time.
Then there was the final boss — the king. He didn't seem evil at all, and even acted super kind, asking again and again if the player was ready to fight.
And if you said no, he'd smile and admit he wasn't ready either.
But once you walked through the final door and confirmed you were ready, everything changed.
The intense background music kicked in.
[ A strange light fills the room ]
[ Twilight is shining through the barrier ]
[ It seems your journey is finally over ]
[ You are filled with 'Determination' ]
As the text faded away, the king opened his eyes and quietly said, "Goodbye, human."
In an instant, like a god of war, his blood-red cape flared behind him, and he smashed the "Mercy" button with his trident.
He shattered your mercy — and his own.
No escape. This fight would end in death.
The final boss was really hard. Even though William had played bullet-dodging games before, it was still intense and full of close calls.
When he finally beat the king, the game gave him the choice to kill or spare him.
Thinking of what the goat mom and Sans had said, William chose to spare him.
The king was clearly shocked. He said he was willing to live peacefully with the goat mom and take care of the main character, forming a new family together in the underground world. It all felt warm and hopeful.
But in the next moment, a flash of light slashed across the screen. The king's shocked face appeared, and Flowey showed up.
Flowey killed the king.
"You idiot. You still haven't learned anything. In this world, it's kill or be killed."
With Flowey's evil grin and laughter ringing in his ears, the game suddenly crashed right in front of William's stunned face.
What just happened? A bug? Did the game break?
Before William could figure it out, the game restarted by itself.
But now the opening cutscene was creepy and strange.
He went to the save screen — and what made it worse was, it wasn't even his save file.
It said:
Flowey, LV: 9999.
It was Flowey's save.
He picked "Continue," and his character appeared inside a pitch-black background.
When he reached the save point marked with a star, the game showed his save data.
But the next second, the screen started shaking, and blood-red cracks spread out from the center of the save info.
Then five words appeared on the screen: "Save File Deleted."
As the save shattered, Flowey reappeared on the screen.
After absorbing the souls of six human children, Flowey now claimed to be a god.
But in the game, his form was a weird and creepy monster—this was the real final boss battle.
This fight was even harder than the one with the king.
After dying, the game displayed a typical "Game Over" screen, along with a line of text:
"This was all just a nightmare… and you'll never wake up."
Alongside the text came Flowey's terrifying laugh, and the whole screen was filled with "hahaha" everywhere—then the game suddenly crashed and closed by itself.
When reopening the game, Flowey would still speak directly to the player with more hopeless lines.
Like: "You think killing you once was enough for me?"
"This world has no such thing as a perfect ending."
To beat Flowey, the only way was to keep going, again and again, until the trapped souls of the other humans awakened, making it impossible for him to reload the save.
Only then could you finally defeat this terrifying boss.
After beating Flowey, you had the option to kill or spare him—but the ending stayed the same either way.
The only difference was that if you chose to spare him, he'd tell you how to unlock the game's true pacifist route.
With the final text appearing, the game officially ended.
But William, sitting in front of the computer, still hadn't recovered from the shock.
Stunning. That was the only word he could think of.
Absolutely stunning.
Breaking the fourth wall, deleting his save, crashing his game, and Flowey's lines—
For a moment, William really felt like this underground world was real, that these characters truly existed.
And after that shock faded, what came next was curiosity.
In the golden hallway, the conversation with Sans had already explained everything.
So LOVE meant level of violence, and EXP meant execution points.
Then what about the other two endings in the game? What were they like?
(End of Chapter)
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