Red Paper, Blue Paper, and a Very Angry Customer

Standing at the entrance of the restroom, the pungent stench grew even thicker, assaulting my nose.

It wasn't the smell of a normal restroom. It was the scent of death—a sickening mixture of rotting protein, stale blood, and damp mold—that made my brow furrow in disgust.

I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket.

Red numbers were blinking on the screen.

Now was the perfect time to use my first cheat key, Setting Addition.

I brought up the Setting Addition window on the screen.

My fingers trembled slightly.

But my mind was crystal clear.

I typed in the sentence I had prepared beforehand, letter by letter.

Once I finished typing, Minhye, who was watching from beside me, asked in confusion,

"What does that mean?"

Hovering my thumb over the Submit button, I replied quietly,

"I'm changing the rules a bit."

"Changing... the rules?"

"I'm downgrading the ghost's murderous acts from a crime to a hygiene violation. Whether it splatters blood or tears people apart, within this space, it simply becomes an act of polluting the facility."

I glanced back at Lee Yeosa standing behind me.

She had already put on her signature rubber gloves and was gripping her mop with a grim, determined expression.

"And in this very place, we have a character who absolutely cannot tolerate any kind of filth, don't we?"

I tapped the Confirm button.

It worked.

Now, this place was no longer a murder scene, but a public facility where cleanliness was the absolute priority.

I checked the time.

"Alright."

I gestured to Mr. Park and Lee Yeosa behind me.

"Please, step inside."

The moment the smartphone vibrated with the notification, I immediately activated my second authority, Casting.

First, I looked at the staggering Park Chunsik.

His face flushed red from the alcohol, he stood there awkwardly, clutching his waistband, completely oblivious to what was happening.

I muttered to myself.

Now, you aren't just a random drunkard. You are an angry, entitled customer with severe anger management issues whose bladder is about to burst, and who is utterly fed up with the entire world. I assign your role.

In an instant, a bizarre madness began to swirl in Chunsik's hazy eyes.

Suddenly, he kicked the restroom door with a loud bang.

"Ah, fuck! I need to piss, so why the hell won't this door open?! Do you know how much I pay in taxes? This is a goddamn mess, a total mess!"

It was a success.

Immediately, I shifted my gaze to Lee Yeosa.

Looking at her calloused hands, which had fought against filth throughout her life as a cleaning lady, I assigned her role.

Yeosa-nim, you are the guardian angel and patron deity of cleanliness, defending the hygiene and order of this restroom. There will be absolutely no compromises.

Instantly, Lee Yeosa's eyes turned fierce.

Seeing Chunsik kicking the door, she slammed her mop onto the floor with a loud thud and barked,

"Which bastard is throwing a tantrum in my zone again?! You dare leave even a single scratch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or scribble, and I'll make sure you can't even pick up your own bones! You hear me?!"

Two actors, completely possessed by their roles.

Then.

Creeeeak.

The restroom door slowly slid open.

At the same time, a chilling, eerie cold draft blasted out from inside.

A sickening, smoky mist of blended red and blue slithered out like a snake.

Deokhu trembled, whispering,

"U-Ugh... I'm literally about to piss myself... This is fucking terrifying."

Glancing inside the open door, I saw nothing but an endless corridor stretching into the darkness, gaping like a giant maw.

I raised my trash picker.

"Alright! Let's go clean up!"

It was the start of a very bizarre expedition.

The moment we crossed the threshold of the restroom, a wave of dizziness washed over me.

"Ugh...!"

"Oppa!"

When I opened my eyes, Deokhu and Minhye let out short shrieks at the sight before them.

"What... is this?"

From the outside, the restroom had looked incredibly cramped.

But where we stood now was a massive, seemingly infinite space.

A corridor lined with worn, stained white tiles stretched all the way to the horizon. On both sides of the hallway, dozens of old wooden doors stood in neat rows like soldiers.

They were the stalls of old-fashioned outhouses.

From the ceiling, red and blue lights flickered alternately.

Bzzzt, blue.

Bzzzt, red.

My vision swam disorientingly, as if I were standing under the strobe lights of a nightclub.

When the red light flashed, the puddles of liquid on the corridor floor looked like blood; when the blue light flashed, they looked like dark blue ink.

"Ugh... blurgh..."

Minhye covered her mouth, looking nauseous. Even Seyeon's face had gone completely pale.

However...

Our reliable actors couldn't care less.

"Ah, dammit! I need to take a leak, so where the hell are the urinals? Why are there only these crappy stalls?! I'm just gonna piss right here, alright?"

Mr. Park—no, the Complaining Customer role I had assigned him—staggered toward the middle of the corridor.

Then, he yanked on the door of the nearest stall.

Rattle! Rattle!

The door was locked.

"Ah, seriously! Hey! Is someone in there? Hurry up and get out! I'm about to burst here!"

He pounded violently on the door.

By all horror movie cliches, a ghost should have burst out from behind that door and dragged him inside. But perhaps because Chunsik's "entitled customer energy" was simply too overwhelming, there was absolutely no response from within.

Without giving up, Chunsik staggered to the next stall, and then the one after that.

"This one's locked too? Hey! How the hell are you managing this place? What am I supposed to do, huh?!"

Meanwhile, the reaction of Lee Yeosa, who had taken on the role of the Cleaning Manager, was even more spectacular.

She didn't seem to care at all about the flashing lights or the endless corridor. Her gaze was fixed entirely on the floor.

"Oh my goodness... Oh, lord! Look at this filthy mess! What kind of lowlifes did this?!"

She gasped in horror at the red liquid splattered across the floor and the soggy, clumped-up wads of toilet paper.

In reality, those were the blood and flesh of the scenario's victims, but to Lee Yeosa, they were nothing but disgusting trash.

"What kind of crazy bastards throw used pads wherever they want?! They left the trash can empty and painted the whole floor with it! Absolute lunatics... lunatics!"

She gripped her mop tightly and began scrubbing the floor furiously.

"Ugh, the smell! Bleach! Bring me some bleach! It'll take all night just to scrub this clean!"

The very characters who should have been paralyzed with fear were instead throwing tantrums and cleaning.

"Pfft...!"

Minhye couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter.

"Is this... actually working?"

"Yeah, is it really working?"

I kept a sharp eye on our surroundings and whispered,

"Look closely. The overall atmosphere is shifting. The ghost is flustered."

It was just as I said.

The red and blue lights, which had been flickering in a steady rhythm, began to waver erratically.

Humans entering its domain of terror were supposed to scream, run, or collapse in panic. Instead, one was kicking the doors, and the other was scrubbing the floor while cursing.

The moment the genre of the scenario shifted from horror to comedy, the ghost's domain of influence was bound to weaken.

But we couldn't let our guard down.

This was still inside the hopeless scenario I had written.

And the ghost had yet to reveal its true form.

It was then.

Hehehehe.

A bizarre sound echoed.

It was a strange voice, loud enough to drown out both Chunsik's shouting and Lee Yeosa's scrubbing.

The voice echoed from the empty air.

"Shall I give you...?"

It was a grotesque voice of indeterminate gender, sounding almost like a young child.

"Shall I give you... red paper... or shall I give you... blue paper..."

It had finally begun.

The core of the original urban legend, and a deadly dilemma.

"Hyung, look up! Look at the ceiling!"

Deokhu shrieked, pointing toward the ceiling.

Something was slowly descending from the darkness of the restroom ceiling.

It was toilet paper.

But it wasn't the soft, fluffy rolls we were familiar with. Instead, a deep red mass of paper, drenched in blood and dripping wet, coiled down like a snake.

"Ugh! The smell!"

From the right, a pale, deep blue mass of paper descended, emitting a freezing cold draft like dry ice.

The two paper serpents glided through the air, silently closing in on the loudest target.

It was Mr. Park, who was still busy kicking the doors.

"Mister!!! Get out of the way!"

Seyeon screamed, but it was already too late. Or rather, Chunsik had no intention of dodging.

Slither.

The blood-red paper coiled around Chunsik's left shoulder. The blue paper wrapped around the right side of his neck.

"Choose... Shall I give you red paper... or shall I give you blue paper?"

The ghost's voice continued to whisper right into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Chunsik's ear.

"Shall I give you blue paper... or shall I give you red paper..."

Chunsik stopped moving.

The horrific clumps of paper were shoved right in front of his face.

Normally, anyone would have fainted at this point, or begged for their life in tears.

But Chunsik, 200% immersed in his role as the Complaining Customer, was built different.

"What the hell is this?!"

He grabbed the red paper wrapped around his neck with his bare hands.

"Ah, it's freezing, you piece of shit!"

Yanking on the dripping, bloody paper, Chunsik began to throw a massive fit, acting exactly like a customer who had received terrible service.

"Look at this, look! It's soaking wet! How the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fuck am I supposed to wipe my ass with something this soggy?! Are you shitting me?!"

He ripped off a large chunk and slammed it onto the floor.

"And what's with the color? Red? Hey, who the hell uses colored toilet paper these days? It's so tacky! Did you put fluorescent chemicals in this? Do you have any idea how sensitive the skin on my ass is?!"

"..."

The ghost's voice cut off.

It felt completely bewildered.

The ghost could only kill once a choice was forced.

If the victim answered "red," it would flay their skin; if they answered "blue," it would drain their blood.

That was the absolute law of this scenario.

But instead of an answer, it had received a formal complaint.

And a fierce protest about product quality, at that.

I suppressed a smirk.

Chunsik then glared at the blue paper.

"And what's this one? Blue? Ugh, it's freezing! Did you keep this toilet paper in the freezer?! You trying to give me hemorrhoids, you bastard?!"

He shoved the blue paper away as well.

"Hey! Call the manager! Bring me embossed paper! Three-ply, embossed white toilet paper! The soft, fluffy kind! Stop playing around with this useless garbage!"

Chunsik jabbed his finger aggressively at the empty air.

The ghost's two "tentacles" hesitated in midair, completely lost.

Watching this absurd spectacle unfold, I couldn't hold back my laughter.

Nice. Phase one is a success.

The ghost's logic had shattered.

Its terror was completely ineffective.

But this alone wasn't enough.

Just because it was flustered didn't mean it would simply back down and let us go.

Soon, it would ignore its own rules and unleash its raw, instinctive murderous intent.

And sure enough...

"Die... Then all of you, die..."

The voice in the air grew heavy and deep.