What does this mean?
Does it know I loaded a save?
Is it talking to me, not to the character in the game?
Has everything I've done been accounted for?
Wu Tian suddenly felt a chilling sensation, even instinctively turning around to look at the empty office behind him.
Clearly, the Poppi in the game wasn't speaking to the protagonist within the game.
It was speaking directly to himâthe player sitting in front of the computer.
It knew what he had done. It even knew he had reloaded a save.
Although Wu Tian clearly understood this was just part of the game's setting,
he was still utterly shocked.
And what did Poppi mean by those words?
Does it possess this power too?
What exactly is Determination?
While exploring the castle, he had encountered several star-shaped icons.
After inspecting them, he always received the same message: "It fills you with Determination."
In that instant, countless doubts surged in his mind.
But above all, there was a stunning sense of awe.
After all, at first, he thought this was just a completely ordinary RPG.
Yet with Poppi's appearance, it was as if the Fourth wall had been shattered.
What other surprises awaited ahead?
With this feeling, Wu Tian continued onward.
One after another, uniquely characterized characters appeared in the game.
Sans, the skeleton holding a whoopee cushion and offering a handshake, and Papyrus, obsessed with blocking his path with puzzlesâthis pair of skeleton brothers left a deep impression on him.
Sans appeared extremely lazy, often making skeleton-related puns to tease his brother Papyrus.
His brother, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about using puzzle traps to obstruct the protagonist.
The amusing part was that if you got stuck on a puzzle, the skeleton would actually reveal the answer himself.
A somewhat edgy Murloc named Alphys relentlessly hunted him down along the way. Later, upon reaching the lava area, she collapsed from dehydration. Conveniently, a water cooler stood nearby, allowing the player to choose whether to save her or not.
Dr. Alphys in the laboratory seemed dull and shyâa textbook image of a socially awkward girl.
During the quiz battle against the robot she created, the doctor would subtly gesture the correct answers to the player.
And depending on the robot's final question, the player could discover she actually had feelings for Alphys, the Murloc who had been hunting the protagonist.
The performance before the boss fight against the robot under the moonlight was utterly jaw-dropping.
But what truly shocked Wu Tian was the conversation with Sans in the magnificent and resplendent corridor just before facing the final BOSS.
Initially, Wu Tian had assumed the setting of Undertale was simply a standard RPG template.
Although Poppi's earlier appearance had given him his first sense of shock and amazement,
he had still been playing the game using conventional RPG Gameplay.
After all, in an RPG, fighting monsters and leveling up was normal, right?
Broodmother and other monsters along the wayâhe spared those he liked, and cut down those that were troublesome or unappealing.
But now, Sans' words made Wu Tian realize he had completely misunderstood.
EXP wasn't Experience Pointsâit stood for Execution Points.
And LOVE wasn't Levelâit stood for Level of Violence.
Every time he killed a monster in the game, his execution points and violence points increased.
At this moment, his LV had reached level 11.
In that instant, Wu Tian recalled what Toriel had said at the beginningâbefriending the monsters. Clearly, the game had been hinting at this all along.
The final boss, King Asgore, didn't seem evil at allâon the contrary, he was quite friendly, repeatedly asking if the protagonist was ready before the battle.
If you said you weren't ready, he'd kindly reply that he wasn't ready either.
But once you passed through the final Conduit and confirmed you were ready, everything changed.
An intense BGM began to play.
ăStrange light illuminates the roomă
ăThe dawn's light pierces through the barrieră
ăIt seems your journey has finally reached its endă
ăYou are now filled with 'Determination'ă
The Narration slowly faded away. The King opened his eyes, uttering the words, "Farewell, human."
In an instant, he descended like the God of War, his scarlet cape fluttering as he swung his trident, shattering the button labeled "Mercy."
"Shatter your mercy, and my mercy too. There's no escape. This battle ends only in death!"
The final stage was extremely difficult. Although Wu Tian had played similar bullet-dodging games before, this one was full of close calls.
After finally defeating the King, the player could choose to kill or spare him.
At that moment, Wu Tian remembered Toriel's and Sans' wordsâand chose to spare him.
The King, surprised by the protagonist's mercy, expressed his willingness to raise him together with Toriel. They could form a new family in the underground worldâeverything seemed so warm and beautiful.
But in the next moment, a flash of blade light cut through the air. With the King's face frozen in shock, Poppi appeared.
It killed the King.
"You fool. You never learn. In this world, it's either kill or be killed."
Amid Poppi's grotesque, evil laughter and Wu Tian's bewildering gaze, the entire game suddenly crashed and closed.
What happened? A bug? Why did the game just disappear?
But before Wu Tian could dwell on it, the game automatically restarted.
And the opening animation had become eerie.
Entering the Saves screen, even strangerâthe save file wasn't his.
It read: Poppi, LV: 9999.
This was Poppi's save file.
Choosing to continue, his character appeared on a pitch-black background.
Approaching the star-shaped save point, his save data appeared on the game interface.
But then, the screen suddenly trembled. Crimson cracks spread across the save data.
Finally, five words appeared: ăSAVE FILE DELETEDă.
As the save shattered, Poppi reappeared on the screen.
Having consumed the souls of six human children, Poppi now proclaimed itself a god.
Yet in the game, its form was a grotesque, bizarre monsterâthis was the true final BOSS battle.
This fight was even more difficult than the previous one against the King.
After dying, a Game Over screen appeared, along with a subtitle:
ăThis is all just a nightmare, and you'll never wake up.ă
In addition to the text, Poppi's chilling maniacal laughter echoed, and the game screen filled with the words "HAHAHAHA," before the game crashed and closed again.
When Wu Tian reopened the game, Poppi continued speaking to himâthe player in front of the computerâwith words of utter despair.
Such as: ăDid you think I'd be satisfied after killing you just once?ă
ăThere is no perfect ending in this world.ă
The only way to defeat Poppi was to persevere, awakening the other human souls it had devoured, until it lost the ability to access savesâonly then could this terrifying boss be truly defeated.
After successfully defeating Poppi, the player could choose to kill or spare itâbut either choice led to the same ending.
The only difference was that sparing Poppi would reveal the method to unlock the Pacifist route.
As the final subtitles appeared, the game officially ended.
But Wu Tian, sitting before the computer, hadn't yet recovered from theéćź the game had delivered.
Aweâthat was the only feeling he had now.
The stunning break of the Fourth wall, the deletion of his save file, the game shutting itself down, the lines (dialogue) of Poppi.
For a moment, Wu Tian truly felt as if such an underground world really existed, and characters like Poppi were truly alive.
And beyond the awe came even greater curiosity.
In the magnificent and resplendent corridor, the conversation with Sans had revealed everything.
LOVE was actually the Level of Violence, and EXP stood for Execution Points.
Thenâwhat were the other two endings in the game like?
<