The Cursed Cycle
"Ugh... Ah..."
Just then.
Deokhu, whom I had just shoved back by the collar, stumbled once more.
His eyes were still out of focus, clouded with a dull, muddy gray.
"Dirty... So dirty..."
"What?"
"Ugh... Hyung... we have to wash. Scrub... we have to scrub. Cleanly... We're so dirty right now... aren't we?"
"What are you doing... Stop it!"
"Ah... filthy... I have to wash it away... I'm going to wash it all off, like this..."
Deokhu began to claw furiously at his own forearms. His fingernails dug deep into his skin, leaving raw, bloody scratches, but he didn't seem to feel any pain as he kept scratching harder and harder.
"I have to wash... Go inside there... rinse... wring... and dry..."
A mutter that sounded entirely possessed.
Scrub, rinse, wring, and dry?
This is...
The washing machine's cycle.
It was proof that his brain was already being overwritten by the cursed machine's algorithm.
"Oppa, what's wrong with you!" Minhye shrieked in terror.
But Deokhu didn't seem to hear her. Like a zombie, he turned back toward washing machine No. 4.
Whirrrr. Hummmm. Vrooooom.
The drum spun slowly, as if beckoning him inside.
A rhythmic, bizarre rotation.
As if spurred on by that hypnotic rhythm, Deokhu began to shuffle forward.
"Move... I'm going to wash... Move..."
Deokhu tried to shove me aside.
"What... what are you doing?!"
"Move..."
He possessed unbelievable strength.
With a monstrous grip strength that would have been unimaginable for the usual him, he pushed me back several steps.
If I let him go, he's actually going to climb inside.
I bit my lip. He was in no state to listen to reason. Because things weren't playing out exactly like my original scenario, a wave of confusion washed over me.
I realized I had to break the connection between Deokhu's trance and the ongoing scenario with a physical shock.
"Snap out of it, you bastard!"
Slap!
Deokhu's head whipped to the side.
I hadn't hit him with full force, but a sharp, resounding crack echoed through the laundromat.
His head spun, and his body tottered.
"Huh...?"
Was it the shock?
The vacant haze in Deokhu's eyes cleared, replaced by his usual timid gaze. Clutching his stinging cheek, he stared at me blankly.
"H-Hyung...? Why am I..."
"Are you back with us? You were about to dive headfirst into the washing machine!"
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.
But there was no time to feel relieved that Deokhu was back.
Creeeeak. Screeeech.
The moment Deokhu snapped out of it, washing machine No. 4 reacted. Like a predator enraged at losing its prey, the machine began to vibrate violently.
Just then.
The rubber seal of the tightly closed door parted slightly.
At the same time.
Pshhhhh!
With the sound of escaping pressure, the crimson liquid filling the drum sprayed out through the gap.
"Get back!"
We instinctively scrambled backward.
Splat. Splash. Slosh. Slosh.
The liquid poured onto the floor, splashing in every direction.
"Ugh... the smell!"
Seyeon gagged, pinching her nose.
It was putrid.
An unbelievable stench, far worse than rotting sewage or the copper tang of blood.
Formalin.
The chemical used to preserve corpses.
"Cover... cover your noses first!"
The red water pooling on the floor didn't stop. It began to wriggle and coalesce like a slime.
Gurgle, glug.
The liquid quickly formed a large puddle, then began to stretch out like multi-pronged tentacles. Its target was clear: our ankles.
"Aaah!"
"Kyaaa!"
Minhye began to scream.
"Stay back! Get away!"
Thwack! Thud!
Minhye instinctively swung her weapon down at the floor.
But her opponent was liquid.
The bat merely parted the water and struck the concrete floor, doing absolutely no damage. Instead, the splashed red droplets began to cling to Minhye's clothes and face.
"Ah! It burns!"
"Minhye! Fall back! Don't let it touch you!"
"It... it stings!"
"Yes! Come this way!"
"Kyaaa!"
Minhye tottered. The liquid's grip strength was beyond belief. As a sticky, cold sensation dragged at her ankle, she lost her balance and crashed to the floor.
"Minhye!"
Deokhu and I lunged forward at the same time, grabbing her arms.
Drag, drag, drag.
A powerful suction seemed to emanate from washing machine No. 4. The streams of water on the floor tried to drag Minhye toward the machine's opening. We held on with every ounce of strength we could muster.
It was then.
Rumble. Whirrr. Hummmm. Vrooooom.
This time, the four dryers on the opposite wall started up simultaneously.
"What is it this time?!"
Deokhu, now fully conscious, cried out in tears.
As the dryers began to spin with a deafening roar, the air inside the room changed drastically.
A sweltering heat.
Ugh...
Scorching hot air began to blast from the dryer vents.
It wasn't just warm air; it was hot enough to scald skin and so humid it choked the breath right out of you.
The water spilled on the floor evaporated in the heat, instantly turning the laundromat into a steam sauna.
"Haah... I can't breathe..."
Seyeon clutched her chest.
I felt like a dumpling trapped in a steamer myself. Deokhu's glasses fogged up instantly, and inhaling the air felt as painful as swallowing boiling water.
A double onslaught: cold water dragging our ankles, and hot air suffocating our lungs.
A torture that alternated between freezing cold and boiling heat.
This was a sign that the spin-dry and heat-dry cycles of the "Four Stages of Death" described in the scenario were occurring simultaneously.
At this rate, we'll be wiped out... We're all going to die.
A warning light flashed in my mind.
There's a limit to fighting physically. No, it's not just a limit—fighting this is flat-out impossible.
Setting Addition. Yes, I have to change the settings!
While holding Minhye's arm with one hand, I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket with the other. My hand was slick with sweat and water, making the fingerprint scanner fail.
"Damn it! Deokhu!"
"Ugh... I've got her!"
I swiped my pattern to unlock the phone and tapped the Setting Addition button.
I racked my brain.
Machines. Washing machines. Dryers.
The most foolproof way to stop all of them at once.
Electricity!
All home appliances run on electricity. Without power, they're just scrap metal.
With trembling fingers, I typed out a sentence.
[However, upon detecting a machine malfunction and water leakage, all power is automatically cut off to prevent fire.]
Good.
The current situation was a textbook malfunction and leakage.
Once this setting was applied, the breaker would trip, and these crazy machines would grind to a halt.
[Input Complete]
I pressed the confirm button.
Setting has been successfully added.
Was it a success?
Panting, I looked up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Any second now, the lights would go out, and the mechanical roar would cease.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
"Huh...?"
But the lights didn't go out.
The washing machine was still spinning like mad, and the dryers were spewing hot air even more violently.
"Hyung! Why isn't it stopping? Didn't you do something?"
Deokhu screamed.
Startled, I looked down at my smartphone screen again.
Does not match the target's power source.
"...What? What does that mean?"
It didn't match the power source?
Oh... No way.
A chilling shiver ran down my spine.
Ah...
When I wrote this scenario, I had completely thrown plausibility out the window.
A 2.0-star piece of trash.
The setting description I had written flashed through my mind.
"These machines are no mere home appliances... They are monsters born of grudges merged with mechanical mechanisms."
Right.
Back then, I had completely ignored the laws of mechanical engineering. A washing machine that spins even when unplugged, a dryer that blasts heat even when the power is cut.
Because I thought that was scarier.
It wasn't 220V electricity powering these machines.
It was the "grudges" of the dead. And the "malice" to swallow the living.
If that was the battery running these machines...
Then there was no way a power-cutoff setting would ever work.
My lazy creation, my complacent settings, had returned as a noose tightening around my neck.
"No... It didn't work."
Seyeon turned her head at my despairing murmur.
"What? What do you mean... it didn't work? Then...?"
In that instant.
The dark red stream of water crawling across the floor suddenly veered, targeting Seyeon.
"Kyaaa!"
Losing her balance in a split second, Seyeon fell backward onto her rear.
Splat!
The stream of water snatched Seyeon's ankle.
It was far stronger and faster than when it had targeted Minhye.
"Ah!"
Seyeon screamed as she was pulled flat onto her back.
"Seyeon!"
I reached out, but I couldn't reach her.
Whoosh!
Like someone sliding down a water slide, Seyeon's body slicked across the floor, sucked toward washing machine No. 4.
"No! Grab her!"
Deokhu threw himself forward to grab her legs, but his hands only swiped empty air on the slippery floor.
Thud! Crash!
Seyeon's back slammed against the base of washing machine No. 4.
"Kyaaa!"
"Hurry!"
And then.
Screeeech!
The door of washing machine No. 4 swung wide open like a monster's maw.
"H-Hyung!"
Deokhu pointed a trembling finger at the open door.
Inside was a pitch-black darkness of unfathomable depth. And from that darkness, dozens of white arms began to emerge.
Pale, skeletal arms, bloated from being submerged in water.
"N-No! Stay away!"
Seyeon thrashed wildly.
Some hands grabbed her arms, others yanked at her clothes. And one hand—the longest and most hideous of them all—fisted itself in Seyeon's long hair.
"Aaah!"
Seyeon's head was yanked backward.
The pale, white hands were trying to stuff her into the narrow, dark drum of the washing machine.
"Help me! Sunbae! Oppa!"
Seyeon's upper body was dragged into the opening.
"Seyeon!!!"
I threw down the bag of salt and sprinted toward washing machine No. 4.
Scorching heat, a slippery floor, and a crushing weight of guilt.
I lunged and grabbed Seyeon.