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4. Following the Wolf

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠What would it feel like to not have a washing machine?

Washing piles of laundry by hand every day, scrubbing away dirt… what kind of laborious task would that be?

Bang!

“This is what laundry is all about.”

Stars twinkled in Haniel’s eyes.

The moment it snapped, tiny water droplets scattered in the air.

The sight of a faint rainbow forming as sunlight refracted through the small water droplets was breathtakingly beautiful.

This was a sight that could only be seen in laundry that had gone through the proper spin cycle of a washing machine.

A level of water extraction that no human hand could achieve, no matter how tightly they wrung the clothes—a realm only machines could reach!

“Who washes clothes by hand these days?”

They say frogs don’t remember their tadpole days. Had she already forgotten how her hands would swell up from doing laundry every day until just recently?

As if her memories as a tadpole had been sent abroad to a past life, Haniel muttered in a haughty voice with her shoulders raised high.

“Life with a washing machine is beautiful.”

Bang! The laundry unfurled in the air again.

It had been several days since Haniel purchased a washing machine with ‘life force,’ and she was using it several times a day as if trying to cleanse away two years of accumulated sorrow, utilizing it for all sorts of things.

Thanks to this, everything in her territory that was clothing, resembled clothing, was made of fabric, or was somewhat ambiguous, now shone brilliantly, having shed their accumulated grime.

Happy.

Satisfying.

This is the convenience of modern human civilization!

A genuine smile appeared on Haniel’s face. She looked back at the laundry she had neatly hung.

Just 30 minutes. Putting in the laundry, washing it clean, and hanging it up. This entire process took only 30 minutes.

That grueling task that originally took well over 1-2 hours, depending on the amount of laundry, and consumed a considerable amount of energy, had been reduced to just 30 minutes. The efficiency was beyond compare.

It performed exactly like the latest washing machine she remembered from her previous life.

Haniel narrowed her eyes.

She remembered a few days ago when she had taken out the washing machine to install it in her home and examined it carefully.

The washing machine that the system had sent with a carefully tied red ribbon. When she untied the ribbon, what she saw was the latest model from S company that she had so desperately wanted in her previous life.

“This… isn’t this the washing machine I saw before?”

A new model washing machine that incorporated advanced AI systems and improved many small details that people had grown accustomed to and didn’t consider inconvenient.

A washing machine that included features to detect and sort laundry by fabric type and weight.

…Yes, exactly as described in the status window.

It was truly a curious thing.

What was the system thinking?

Lee Haneul, who Haniel was in her previous life, had lived in abject poverty and dreamed of owning such a washing machine.

That dream was connected to having her own space, her own home.

At a time when she had no home and only debt.

Back then, when she wasn’t even certain she could afford a home, she had no choice but to use shared washing machines as she moved between gosiwons and cheap monthly rentals.

A washing machine running all day long.

A pitiful shared washing machine where someone was always waiting for their turn while it was running, and as soon as one cycle ended, the next load of laundry was stuffed in without a moment’s rest.

Lee Haneul remembered those times when she would finish her three daily part-time jobs and inevitably put her laundry in the washing machine late at night, enduring curses from others.

“They say modern washing machines don’t make rattling noises, no matter how strong the spin cycle is.”

That large top-loading washing machine from back then. The gosiwon owner insisted that older models were better and refused to replace it, so the sound of pressing buttons and the noise of the internal drum spinning were incredibly loud.

The moments when a person makes resolutions don’t always come with dramatic backgrounds or major downfalls.

When such trivial miseries flood in, so commonplace that they no longer feel special.

Even while sitting on the waiting chair next to the washing machine, quietly counting the patterns on the floor, such moments of resolution would come.

Sometimes. When a neighbor from another room, who separated all their clothes by type and ran them in separate loads happened to be using the machine first, and she had to wait until late at night for her turn.

When she would go back and forth, wearing down the threshold, checking if the neighbor had finished using the washing machine, if it was finally her turn.

And only when it got so late that no one else would use it, her turn would come, and she would hurriedly put in her laundry.

A wall with signs saying, ‘Please be quiet as this is a shared space,’ ‘This is not for individual use.’

The sound of pressing buttons and the noise of the spin cycle were so loud when she inevitably operated the washing machine while everyone else was sleeping.

Sitting on the chair outside with her hat pulled down, waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle, Haniel resolved at such times.

That the next washing machine she bought would be a good one.

One that washed well on its own without having to wait for turns or stand by all day and night… one of those washing machines being advertised.

And that she would have a home suitable for such a washing machine.

That she would have her own space where she could be happy…

“…”

And Haniel finally got such a washing machine.

This washing machine right in front of her.

Along with it came her own spacious and quiet territory, with plenty of room for a washing machine without any lack of space.

“…How strange.”

Did the system know that she wanted this washing machine?

This washing machine, which closely resembled the product she had eyed in her previous life, was almost identical in function to the S company’s model, just without the logo.

A knockoff.

The wave of tender emotion that had momentarily rushed in ebbed away like the tide.

Haniel frowned as she looked down at the washing machine.

“Wait, why is the drying function missing?”

‘I’m sure that washing machine in my previous life had a drying function too.’

She remembered that washing, drying, and everything took about 30 minutes in total.

However, the system shop’s knockoff S company washing machine was cunningly missing the drying function.

The corners of Haniel’s mouth trembled.

She already knew the reason.

“This is exactly what game companies do.”

Like money-hungry game companies that don’t settle for one complete game but divide the next content into several expansion packs to force customers to buy more.

Like selling a piece of clothing but making sleeves, buttons, fabric, and hem all separate purchases.

The system was doing this to Haniel.