Secret ending in Hot Knife route, too?

Recently, i decided to beat all game in Mania, through and through... But while cruising through the hot knife route (the one with Robot Mr.X and the countdown), after:
a. Disabling countdown
b. Getting that card

And beating Shiva (in Mania)...

I got to see the secret ending (with the UFO abduction of players), instead of the expected "There are not enough clues on Mr.X, try again, etc".

Wasn't it absolutely necessary to beat the game by downing any old/normal Mr.X, either from the Sor1 route or Sor2 one? In order to get to the secret ending? Well, anyway, Hot Knife route is easier by far, for this purpose...

Nope, just beat it on Mania with no cheats and no save state usage.

Saven wrote:Nope, just beat it on Mania with no cheats and no save state usage.

I never use cheats myself and i always finish 1 play at 1 go. When i did what i listed above, i got the secret ending. But when i beat Shiva with the timer running (in mania and with everything else you mention), instead of the secret ending, i got the explosion one, normally! Secret ending appeared only when i both deactivated countdown and picked the card...