Chapter 20: Breaking the Fourth Wall
'What does this mean? Does it know I reloaded? Is it talking to me, not the game character? Has everything it's done been calculated?'
Ryan felt a chill and, unconsciously, turned his gaze towards the deserted office.
Clearly, the flower inside the game was not speaking to the protagonist, but to him, the player sitting in front of the computer. It knew what he had done, it even knew he had reloaded and started over. Although Ryan knew this was how the game was set up, he was still surprised.
'And what did the flower mean? Did it possess this power? What was determination?'
While exploring the castle, he had stumbled upon maps that glowed like stars. Upon investigating, he almost always reached the next sentence: "It fills you with determination." For a moment, he was filled with doubt, but even more so, a sense of awe. After all, at first, this was just an ordinary RPG. But with the appearance of the flower, it was as if the fourth wall had been broken.
'What would happen next?'
With this in mind, Ryan continued to advance.
One distinctive character after another appeared in the game. Sans, who shook his hand while holding a whoopee cushion, and Papyrus, who loved to frustrate him with puzzles, left a deep impression on him. Sans, looking rather lazy, delighted in skeleton puns to tease his brother, Papyrus. Meanwhile, his brother was quite fond of using puzzles to frustrate the protagonist. The interesting thing was that when he got stuck on a puzzle, the skeleton would reveal the answer.
Undyne, a somewhat childish fish warrior, pursued him throughout the game. Finally, after reaching a lava map, she collapsed from lack of water. A water cooler was nearby, offering the player the option to save her or not. In the lab, Dr. Alphys seemed somewhat clumsy and shy, the very image of a homebody. Later, when faced with a quiz with a robot she had created, she used her hands to indicate the correct answer. The robot's response to the final question also revealed that she was in love with the warrior Undyne, who pursued the protagonist.
And Mettaton's performance before the confrontation with the robot was truly dazzling.
But what truly impacted Ryan was the conversation he had with Sans in the magnificent hallway just before facing the game's final boss. From the beginning, Ryan simply assumed that Undertale's setting was merely an imitation of a typical RPG. Although Flowey's appearance had initially impacted and astonished him, he had actually been playing all along using RPG principles.
'Isn't leveling up monsters normal in RPGs?'
He had let some of the monsters he encountered along the way pass, while he had killed those that were more problematic and less appealing. But now, Sans's words made Ryan realize that he had completely misunderstood.
EXP is not experience points; they are execution points.
Similarly, LOVE is not a level; it is Level of Violence.
Every time he killed a monster in the game, his execution points and violence increased. His level had reached 11. At that moment, Ryan remembered what Toriel had said at the beginning about befriending monsters. Clearly, the game had been hinting at this from the start.
The final boss, the King, did not seem threatening, but rather friendly. Before the battle, he repeatedly asked if he was ready. If he said no, he would kindly say that he wasn't either. But after crossing the final door and confirming his readiness, everything changed. The exciting background music filled the air.
[A strange light illuminates the room.]
[The dawn breaks through the barrier.]
[It seems your journey has finally come to an end.]
[You are now filled with determination.]
The narration subtitles slowly faded, and the King opened his eyes, saying, "Goodbye, human."
In an instant, like a god of war descending to earth, his scarlet cape fluttered and he brandished his trident, shattering the "Mercy" button.
"Crush your mercy, and mine too! Don't run away! This fight will end in death!"
The final level was incredibly challenging, and although Ryan had already played similar bullet-hell and dodging games, it was still a treacherous challenge.
After finally defeating the king, he could choose to kill him or spare him. At that moment, Ryan remembered Toriel's and Sans's words, and chose to spare him. The king, surprised by his forgiveness, offered to join Toriel in taking care of him, forming a new family in the underworld. Everything seemed so warm and beautiful.
But then, the flash of a sword gleamed, and with the king's face filled with astonishment, Flowey appeared. He killed the king.
"Fool, you still haven't learned your lesson! In this world, it's kill or be killed!"
Flowey chuckled, and as Ryan looked on in bewilderment, the game suddenly crashed.
'What's going on? An error? Why did the game disappear?'
But Ryan didn't have much time to be confused before the game automatically restarted. The intro animation also became strange.
Upon entering the save screen, the strangest thing was that the file was not his. It said: Flowey, Level: 9999. It was Flowey's save file.
Upon continuing, his own character appeared in the game, with a dark background. He reached the save point that represented a star, and his save file information appeared on the game interface. But the next instant, the screen suddenly trembled and bloody cracks spread from the center of the file. Finally, the five words "save file deleted" were displayed.
With the save file shattered, Flowey reappeared on the screen. Flowey, who had devoured the souls of six human children, now considered himself a goddess. But in the game, he was a strange and grotesque monster. This was the true final boss battle.
This battle was even more difficult than the previous one against the king. After dying, the game displayed a game over screen and subtitles: "This is just a nightmare, and you will never wake up." In addition to the subtitles, Flowey's chilling laughter could be heard, and the screen filled with a "Hahahaha." The game crashed again and automatically closed.
Upon reopening it, Flowey continued to utter desperate words, such as: "Do you think I'll be satisfied with killing you only once?"
"There is no perfect ending in this world."
The only way to defeat Flowey was to persevere until he awakened the other human souls he had devoured, which finally incapacitated him from recovering save games. Only then could this terrifying boss be defeated. After defeating Flowey, one could choose to kill him or spare him, but the result was the same. The only difference was that sparing Flowey would reveal the method to unlock the pacifist route.
With the final subtitles, the game officially ended. But Ryan, sitting in front of the computer, had not yet fully recovered from the game's impact.
Impressive, that was all he felt now. Impressive. Breaking the fourth wall, deleting his save games, closing the game, and Flowey's dialogue was ready. Even that moment in the game made Ryan feel that that underground world truly existed, and that characters like Flowey truly existed.
And after this astonishment, he felt even more curious. In the magnificent corridor, a conversation with Sans revealed everything. It turns out that the so-called LOVE is the violence index, and EXP is the execution point.
So, what are the other two endings of the game?
A/n For some reason it reminded me of Inscryption, has anyone else played Inscryption?
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