The Ultimate Eviction Notice
The low, droning hum shifted into a sharp, metallic screech.
"Screeeeeeech!"
The red and blue toilet papers expanded simultaneously. The paper bundles, once thin as snakes, suddenly bloated like massive pythons, attempting to coil tightly around Park Chunsik's torso.
Rules be damned—it seemed the ghost was intent on simply crushing him with brute force.
"Whoa, look at this guy! You're hitting me? Go ahead! Hit me! Let's see how much you'll owe me in settlement money!"
Park Chunsik thrashed, but it was futile.
Their strength was supernatural.
There was nothing human strength could do against it.
Park's face began to turn a bruised shade of purple.
Just then.
"Mister!"
Deokhu tried to rush forward, but I grabbed his arm to hold him back.
"Wait. We still have one more person."
I pointed my trash grabber to the side.
Standing there, watching this entire chaotic mess, was the true ruler of this domain: Lee Yeosa.
"What in the world do you think you're doing...? It's filthy!!!!!!"
Sparks practically flew from her eyes.
In her sacred territory, the public restroom, unidentified lumps of trash were dangling from the ceiling and harassing a customer.
To her, ghosts were not objects of terror.
They were merely lumps of sewage leaking from the ceiling pipes, or trash thrown around by some prankster.
"You... rotten pieces of trash!"
Lee Yeosa flipped her mop, gripping it like a bat.
"How dare you hang trash from the ceiling of my sacred restroom! Clean it up this instant!"
Channeling the power granted by her role as the Cleaning Manager, she swung the mop handle with a full-force follow-through at the bundle of red toilet paper.
WHACK!
An astonishing thing happened.
The ghost's true form, which should have been immune to physical attacks, was sent flying by the old woman's worn-out mop handle.
"Gyaaaah!"
The ghost shrieked.
"Get rid of this too! You won't? I'll shred you to pieces!!!!"
Riding her momentum, Lee Yeosa kicked the bundle of blue toilet paper.
Under her rubber boot, the blue paper tore apart and retreated.
Park Chunsik fell to the floor, coughing violently.
"Cough... hack... Aigoo... She's got a hell of a kick..."
The old woman huffed, glaring into the empty air.
"Who is it?! Don't hide, come out! Whoever dirtied my domain, I'm going to wash your face with dirty mop water!"
Her roaring shout echoed thunderously throughout the entire restroom.
The red and blue lights flickered frantically.
Then, a bizarre voice followed.
"I won't... forgive you..."
"I'll kill you all..."
Dozens of doors on both sides of the hallway rattled in unison.
If things went according to my expectations—no, according to my script.
It would turn into a rampaging killer and pounce on us.
But that was exactly what I was aiming for.
The moment it went berserk and trashed this restroom...
The trigger for the setting I had added, Eviction Notice, would be pulled.
Adjusting my grip on the trash grabber, I whispered to my team.
"Get ready. Sewage might start pouring out."
"W-what?!"
Before the words could even leave my mouth, liquid began to back up from dozens of toilet bowls.
From the toilets on the left, sticky, metallic-smelling red blood erupted like fountains. From the toilets on the right, a deep blue poison that looked like it could melt flesh on contact cascaded down like waterfalls.
"Aaaah!"
"A... tsunami?!"
"So gross...!"
Minhye and Deokhu shrieked and hid behind my back.
The red blood and blue poison mingled, forming a massive tidal wave that surged forward, threatening to swallow the hallway whole.
Rules be damned. The ghost's blatant murderous intent was clear: it wanted to flood the entire space with filth to drown or dissolve us.
The climax of a horror movie.
The desperate moment right before the protagonist's group is utterly wiped out.
But I quietly muttered.
"Hook, line, and sinker."
For the ghost, losing its mind and going berserk was a fatal mistake.
Because I had planted a setting beforehand specifically for this moment.
[However, any damage to facilities or acts of pollution not authorized by the restroom manager shall be grounds for immediate eviction.]
What the ghost was doing right now.
Backing up the toilets and pouring unidentified liquids all over the floor.
In this world, that wasn't classified as 'attempted murder'—it was massive, unauthorized pollution.
It's grounds for eviction!
I glanced to my side.
Lee Yeosa was staring blankly at the oncoming wave of sewage. No matter how veteran a cleaner she was, this volume was simply too much to handle.
"Aigoo... When am I going to clean all that up...?"
Lee Yeosa let out a deep sigh.
She looked ready to give up.
I quickly leaned in close to her ear.
And I whispered a devilish prompt, striking her ultimate sore spot.
"Manager."
"...Huh?"
"We have a huge problem. That punk is spraying sewage all over our restroom. According to the regulations, if we don't restore everything to its original state and dry the floor completely..."
I paused for dramatic effect, then delivered the most brutal blow.
"...Manager, you won't be able to go home today."
Instantly.
Lee Yeosa's shoulders stiffened.
"...What?"
"You can't go home. To clean all this up, you'll have to work overnight until tomorrow morning—no, maybe even until the day after tomorrow. And without any overtime pay."
No going home.
Overnight shifts.
Unpaid labor.
There was no curse more terrifying than this to a South Korean worker.
In the eyes of the exhausted old woman, a flame hotter than the fires of hell ignited.
"You... mother... fucking piece of shit..."
Lee Yeosa's hands trembled as she gripped her mop handle.
"You filthy bastard!!!"
Her roaring shout tore through the hallway.
"How dare you spray sewage in someone else's territory! I need to go home! Get the hell out of my restroom right now!"
Coinciding with her shout, the rubber cleaning hose coiled in the corner of the restroom wriggled like a live snake, flying straight into her hand.
She twisted the faucet all the way open.
Swoooooosh!!!!
A torrent of water erupted from the nozzle.
A high-pressure stream of water, glowing with a brilliant white light.
Imbued with the attributes of Contaminant Removal and Forced Eviction by my added settings, it was a stream of purifying water far more potent than holy water.
"Get the hell out, all of you!!!"
Gripping the hose like a firefighter, she aimed the stream directly at the oncoming red and blue waves.
*Ssssssssshh!*
Wherever her stream of water touched, the raging blood and poison turned into white foam and washed away instantly.
Like stubborn grime blasted away by a pressure washer, the ghost's attack was effortlessly erased.
"W-what?"
Park Chunsik watched the scene with wide, disbelieving eyes.
The old woman advanced without hesitation. She aimed the stream at the ceiling, where the massive red and blue toilet paper bundles—the ghost's true body—were still coiled.
"You get down here too, you moldy bastard!"
*Splash! Splaaash!*
The purifying stream struck the ghost's true form dead-on.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
"Gyaaaah!"
The ghost shrieked.
It had endured physical blows, but it couldn't withstand a conceptual attack like 'cleaning.'
The reason was simple: it had been defined as a contaminant.
And the manager possessed the authority to remove contaminants.
Lee Yeosa was faithfully executing the role I had designed for her.
"No... This is my space... I am the rule... I am the law..."
The ghost struggled, trying to extend its tentacles once more, but Lee Yeosa showed no mercy.
"Rules, my foot! If it's dirty, you clean it—that's the only rule!"
She pinched the end of the hose with her fingers, maximizing the water pressure.
*Pssssshhhhh—!*
A stream like a water cannon pierced straight through the center of the entity.
"Gwaaaaah!!"
The ghost's body shattered into pieces.
Its fragments, reduced to mushy, wet paper pulp, rained down onto the floor.
Suddenly.
A rumbling roar vibrated through the air.
Turning toward the sound, I saw the floor at the end of the hallway swirling open, revealing a massive, pitch-black void.
A... drain?
The eviction order was being executed.
"N-no! I refuse! I am terror! I am despair!"
The mushy remnants of the ghost shrieked as they tried to hold on, but the suction of the drain was absolute.
"Goodbye, you clogged toilet of a ghost."
I quietly offered my farewell.
*Gurgle! Flush!*
With the sound of a massive flush, the red and blue lumps of filth were sucked down into the drain.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
The final shriek was drowned out by the sound of rushing water.
A clean finish. Only the wet floor gleamed under the light.
*Whirrrr.* The space began to shift once more.
The endless hallway shrank, and the dozens of doors vanished.
The red and blue psychedelic lights went out.
When we blinked, the familiar scenery reappeared before our eyes.
The old, cramped outhouse halfway up Gwanaksan Mountain.
It was a perfectly ordinary, quiet night, illuminated only by the gentle moonlight.
"Uh... What? Is it over?"
Park Chunsik, who had been standing dazed until then, suddenly clutched his pants as if remembering something and bolted into one of the stalls.
"Aigoo, I'm gonna die! It's gonna burst!"
*Peeee.* The refreshing sound of urination broke the silence.
Could there be a more peaceful, human sound?
Lee Yeosa tossed the hose aside and patted her lower back.
"Aigoo, I'll have to mop the floor again. Look how wet it is."
Though she grumbled, she let out a satisfied snort, clearly pleased with her victory.
I pulled my vibrating smartphone from my pocket.
[Eighth Scenario Completed.]
[Reward: Author's Authority has been enhanced.]
[The curtain falls.]
The surreal energy that had enveloped the restroom vanished without a trace.
Park Chunsik shivered, seemingly sobered up a bit.
Lee Yeosa spoke with a bright face, as if nothing had happened.
"Students, is the filming all done? Can I go home now?"
In their memories, the 'battle with the ghost' seemed to be reconstructed as 'acting out a cleaning scene for a movie.' All thanks to the Stage Curtain.
I let out a long sigh and looked back at my team.
Minhye, Deokhu, and Seyeon all had completely dazed expressions.
"Alright! It's over! We did it, right?"
We had done it. By writing the most absurd, bizarre answer to an otherwise unsolvable problem.
Setting down my trash grabber, I raised my hand like a director.
"Manager. That's a wrap."
I looked up at the night sky and smiled.
"Cut. Great work, everyone."
The moon emerged from behind the clouds, brightly illuminating the clean restroom.