Setting aside the META elements, Undertale's story itself was already remarkably good.
The game was filled with many interesting and charming characters.
For example, Sans, who held a Whoopee Cushion while shaking hands with the protagonist, and Papyrus, who loved using puzzles to block the protagonist's path.
The seemingly lazy Sans loved making skeleton-related puns to tease his brother Papyrus.
Meanwhile, his brother Papyrus was extremely fond of using puzzle mechanisms to obstruct the protagonist, yet whenever the protagonist did not try to solve them or could not solve them, he would take the initiative to reveal the answers.
The shut-in-like doctor.
What shocked players even more was what Sans said in the magnificent golden corridor before the game's final Boss Battle.
Here, Sans began judging everything the player had done.
From Sans, players learned that EXP was not experience points, but execution points.
And LV was not what players thought it was, nor was it simply LOVE. It was short for Level of Violence.
Whenever the player killed a monster, their Execution Points increased, and as their Execution Points rose, so did their Level of Violence.
It was not experience, much less a character level, but the game's violence index.
That was how Undertale subverted conventional RPG settings.
Killing monsters to level up was probably something most RPG players took for granted.
But Undertale was different.
For most first-time players, they would get the Neutral Ending first and be shocked by Flowey's content.
But if the player chose not to kill Flowey at the end of the Neutral Ending, they would learn from it how to achieve the Pacifist Ending.
In the Pacifist Ending, players had to avoid killing any monsters and make friends with every monster through conversation.
Over the course of this ending, players could discover that each of these monsters had their own distinct traits.
Even the terrifying-looking monsters had adorable sides. For example, Undyne was practically a textbook tsundere!
Listen, human, we are not just going to become friends.
We are going to become best friends.
I will make you completely unable to resist me.
This is my perfect revenge.
Under Papyrus's "provocation," the legendary Royal Guard Captain accepted the protagonist as a friend.
She even gave the protagonist a cooking lesson, though the lesson ended up burning down her house.
The skeleton brothers, Toriel, Undyne...
Especially when facing the final boss, King Asgore and Toriel's son Asriel, countless players were moved to tears.
In this battle,
death did not result in a game over.
Instead, a line of text appeared: Your determination refused.
In the end, with the determination of countless friends helping them, the player finally defeated Asriel.
At the same time, Asriel told them some of the story behind the game.
A long, long time ago, a human child fell into the Underground and happened to be saved by Asriel, then taken in by King Asgore and Toriel.
They became the best of friends, but later, for some reason, he lost that friend.
So Asriel absorbed the first child's Souls, becoming an incredibly powerful being with the strength to cross the barrier. Asriel left the Underground and came to the surface to fulfill his friend's final wish.
But humans mistook him for killing the first child and attacked him. In the end, the battered Asriel staggered home, collapsed to the ground, turned into a cloud of dust, and scattered throughout the garden.
His determination then flowed into a Golden Flower. That was Flowey's origin.
In that final battle, Asriel finally found release and peace, letting go of the pain he had clung to for so long.
Both the Neutral Ending and the Pacifist Ending had been achieved.
It seemed players should have been satisfied with that, but curiosity was human nature.
The violence points, the execution points, Flowey's evil side—all of it seemed to drive players to seek out another ending.
And in that ending, players truly experienced an indescribable shock, along with something to ponder on a spiritual level.
Sitting before his computer, Jiang Ping wore a solemn expression.
"3 remaining in current area."
A prompt appeared on the monitor.
In the Underground area, the monsters had already been slaughtered. Only three monsters remained unfound in this area.
The map was empty, and the once-lively tavern was deathly silent.
At that moment, Jiang Ping felt something indescribable.
Because of Magic Mirror, that Gentleman Game, he had also been very curious about Chen Xu's new game, Undertale.
From his initial disdain upon entering the game to the shock he felt upon clearing it.
After achieving both the Neutral Ending and the Pacifist Ending, he had grown curious about the so-called Genocide Ending.
But now, he felt somewhat regretful.
The monsters who had been his friends in the previous playthrough died one by one at his hands, all just to satisfy the conditions for the game's plot.
Including Papyrus, that skeleton who was like a little angel, who had believed until his dying moment that Jiang Ping could still turn over a new leaf.
What a great excuse, huh? You must understand better than anyone how liberating this method could be!
But at least we were better than those hypocrites who turned a blind eye to evil. Those pathetic fools wanted to watch, but were too cowardly to do it themselves!
The game's narration was full of sarcasm.
Yet he still did not stop.
Every monster died in a single slash.
Until he encountered the Royal Guard Captain, Undyne, once again.
Beside a waterfall, Undyne appeared and took a blow for a bean-like little monster.
As the Royal Guard Captain, she had always protected the monsters of the Underground, but now she said that she had let them down.
But just as she was about to die, impassioned background music began to play.
A fierce wind howled as white light flashed.
Determination Undyne appeared.
This hero had reforged herself through her determination to save the world.
As he listened to the stirring music called Battle Against a True Hero, Jiang Ping felt only immense irony.
The game's monster was called a hero.
Yet the protagonist he controlled was doing what a monster ought to have done.
This was the hardest battle he had fought in the game so far.
After great effort, he killed Undyne and continued forward. At last, he arrived at a familiar place.
The Throne Room was magnificent and resplendent, and a familiar figure waited ahead.
Before this, Sans would judge the player's actions.
But now?
There was no more unnecessary talk.
The battle began immediately.
What a beautiful day today!
Birds were singing, flowers were blooming!
On days like these, people like you...
Should be burning in hell...!
As his words fell, an attack like a tidal wave swept in, instantly killing the completely unprepared Jiang Ping.
He kept working and kept trying.
Finally, just as he was about to defeat Sans.
The Sans in the game seemed to think of a solution: he would simply never move during his turn.
But unfortunately, Sans still failed.
While Sans was resting, Jiang Ping quietly moved to the attack button, ambushed him, and killed Sans.
Then Flowey appeared, but unlike the Flowey from the Neutral Ending, this Flowey was filled with fear toward the protagonist and begged not to be killed.
The next instant, eight consecutive slashes chopped it into pieces.
Everything seemed to be over, but then someone appeared who left Jiang Ping stunned.
Chara, the human who had first fallen into the Underground, had been awakened from death.
Two choices appeared before him: destroy this world, or do not destroy it.
Looking at the deathly silent darkness and the strange Chara.
Jiang Ping felt utterly suffocated.
At first, he had only wanted to learn this ending's story.
He had regretted it midway through, but he had not stopped.
And now, that feeling of regret was even stronger.
So he chose no.
But the next instant, Chara's expression turned sinister.
You seem to have misunderstood something. Since when was it your turn to decide?
As Chara's words appeared, a flash of blade-light cut through the screen.
The game screen shook, and strings of blood-red 9999 damage numbers filled the display.
Then the game shut itself down completely.
So this was the ending of the Genocide Route?
Sitting before his computer, Jiang Ping took a deep breath and pressed his lips together.
Before you continue