Shock

As a game editor, even though Wu Tian hadn't been on the job for very long.

He had still played plenty of games in this area.

From the current content of "Undertale," Wu Tian could clearly sense some of its characteristics.

First was the game's quality—not the content, but the purely external quality, like graphics and control experience.

"Undertale" was only passable in his book, about on par with your average indie game.

But when it came to content, Wu Tian could only say that "Undertale" felt pretty lackluster to him so far.

The puzzle content, even though it was just tutorial-level puzzles, was incredibly dull and boring.

Just pushing rocks and pulling levers.

As for the combat phase, the game offered some dialogue options like Mercy.

Players could choose not to kill monsters.

Based on Wu Tian's gaming experience, this was nothing more than an honor point system.

High honor points led to a good ending, low honor points led to a bad one.

Nothing special about the setup, and the game's story itself felt like a generic dungeon-monster template.

After taking down some minor monsters blocking the path, Wu Tian glanced at the post-battle prompts and continued on without much thought.

As a game editor, his approach was to clear the game first and see how the whole experience flowed.

Although he could have resolved things more peacefully, Wu Tian chose the simplest method: fighting.

After all, it's an RPG, right? Leveling up by beating monsters is normal, isn't it?

As he advanced, the goat mother in the game kept appearing, asking the protagonist what he liked to eat and what he was allergic to.

After exploring for a while, Wu Tian let out a soft sigh and shook his head.

He had a feeling that the appearance of the "Magic Mirror" was purely an accident.

After all, the "Undertale" he was seeing now felt like chicken ribs—playable, but nothing that made his eyes light up.

There was nothing left to explore in the entire castle, no eye-catching mechanical puzzles, no eye-catching story beats.

He simply discovered the Great Door leading to the underground world.

After triggering this event, the goat mother who had saved the protagonist earlier said the outside world was dangerous, and if he insisted on leaving, he'd have to prove he could protect himself.

After agreeing, it was straight into a battle sequence.

The goat mother who had saved the protagonist stopped her from leaving, saying that if she wanted to go, she'd have to prove she could protect herself.

Just like the previous fights, the goat mother Toriel's battle also offered the Mercy option.

Unlike the ordinary monsters, Wu Tian actually liked this goat mother quite a bit.

So he didn't attack, but he quickly found that the Mercy option wasn't doing anything.

He clicked it a few times in a row, but the goat mother kept attacking.

So he had to fight back?

Or was there a scripted death scene coming, where he'd drain the goat mother's HP bar and trigger a cutscene?

Wu Tian guessed to himself as he tried attacking the goat mother.

First hit, took about a tenth of her HP.

Second hit, another small chunk gone.

Third hit landed, and something stunned him.

Because with that hit, the goat mother's HP bar was completely emptied.

The slain goat mother knelt on one knee, still concerned about the protagonist, telling him to leave quickly.

Then she dissolved into fragments, vanishing into the air.

"What the hell? How did she die? Isn't this the good-alignment playthrough? Or do I need to keep clicking Mercy?"

Even though the game gave no hints, as a gaming veteran, Wu Tian quickly thought of possible game mechanics.

So to test his theory, Wu Tian reloaded his save.

Following the same pattern, he started the battle again.

This time, Wu Tian didn't attack at all, just kept clicking Mercy over and over.

As the rounds progressed, the goat mother's attacks grew fiercer, and Wu Tian accidentally ran into one.

His HP was reduced to a sliver.

But what happened next confirmed Wu Tian's suspicion.

In the game, the goat mother's attacks would actively avoid the heart representing the protagonist.

Even when Wu Tian tried to deliberately run into them, she dodged.

"So that's how it is! The player has to wait a certain number of rounds, but the goat mother won't kill the player."

"Compared to the earlier plot of killing Toriel, there's a certain irony in the symbolism here, especially paired with the mechanic where Toriel's attacks deliberately avoid the player. This part is somewhat similar to the plot in the 'Magic Mirror'—an exploration of good and evil, morality, and human nature."

As a game editor, Wu Tian was critiquing the game from a deeper, more analytical perspective.

After dodging Toriel's attacks and clicking the Mercy option fourteen times in a row, listening to the lighthearted music in the game and watching the post-battle cutscene, Wu Tian shook his head.

In the game, faced with the protagonist who insisted on leaving, Toriel finally stopped blocking her this time. Instead, she gently embraced the protagonist and personally escorted her out of the castle.

"After all, he's a rookie game designer. This trigger condition for the plot is still too crude—having to click Mercy that many times in a row. Even if the intent is to keep the player from noticing, still..." Wu Tian shook his head.

"And if he really wanted the player not to notice, then the design of the bullet patterns deliberately dodging the player actually exposes itself, telling the player this is a scripted death. It's like taking off your pants to fart."

Thinking back to the design of Toriel's battle phase, Wu Tian criticized this aspect.

In his view, if only one of these two design choices had been used, it would have been passable.

Using both, however, backfired.

But the next scene made him freeze in his chair.

Because what appeared before him completely overturned his judgment!

Flowey, the character who had tried to kill the protagonist earlier, showed up again.

What shocked Wu Tian wasn't Flowey himself, but the lines he spoke.

[Clever! Ve~ry~ Clever!!]

[You really think you're so clever, don't you?]

[In this world, it's kill or be killed!]

[That's why you can do whatever you want.]

[You're enjoying yourself, aren't you?]

[Because you just spared someone's life?]

[Hee hee hee, but don't act so smug!]

[Because... I know everything. I know what you've done!]

[You've already killed her!]

[But you regretted it, so you went back to the past. You wanted to do it over again.]

[Hahaha... you're such a naive fool. Did you think you were the only creature with this kind of power?]

[This power to reshape the world... it comes entirely from your own Determination. The ability to play god. The ability to SAVE.]

[I thought I was the only one with that power, but... I can't SAVE anymore.]

[Clearly, your craving for this world surpasses mine.]

[Alright, alright. Enjoy it while you still have that power.]

[I'll be watching you!]

[Hee hee hee hee...]