The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Calamity-grade Artifacts in Urban Legends Show Their Obsession — Chapter 10
Early morning.
Woo Ju woke earlier than usual, ate breakfast, washed, and then pulled out clothes he rarely wore.
“Hmm.”
The mirror reflected an awkward expression on his face. Black trousers and a white shirt. And a black jacket.
That’s right. He was dressed in formal attire.
“Strange…….”
It was a suit he’d bought for interviews, but he’d never imagined a day would come when he’d actually wear it to work.
Every interview he’d gone to had fallen through. Lately, he hadn’t even been getting past the application stage.
But that was all in the past.
In a few hours, his first day of work would finally arrive.
And it would be at a workplace with conditions nearly rivaling those of a major corporation.
‘Though the job itself is pretty far from ordinary.’
Everyone can’t spend their whole life doing only what they want, can they?
Besides, the companies he’d applied to weren’t places he’d chosen because he desperately wanted the work.
Most importantly, given what had happened over the past week, it seemed he had genuine aptitude for this new role.
This was a situation anyone would envy.
“Hmm.”
Yet now, with his first day of work approaching, Woo Ju found one thing nagging at him.
It was a single book sitting on his desk.
“The Necronomicon…….”
Woo Ju murmured the book’s name.
At that, the book trembled as though it had heard him.
An ordinary person would have been terrified, but Woo Ju merely furrowed his brow slightly.
After finishing his business at Sa Gyeong Station and returning home.
Woo Ju immediately searched for information about the Necronomicon on his phone.
In truth, until he’d picked up the object and the incident had occurred, he’d deliberately tried to ignore the Necronomicon.
The Iron Pipe alone was already enough of an extraordinary item for him.
‘But it seems I’m already deeply tangled up in this.’
The Iron Pipe, this book—keeping his distance seemed pointless.
Especially now that he’d taken a job at a non-mundane company.
After conducting a thorough search, Woo Ju learned several facts.
“Necronomicon.”
That’s what was written in alphabetic letters on the book’s cover.
But Woo Ju remembered the characters that had been on the cover when he first found it. Though he hadn’t been able to interpret their meaning then.
Yet during his search, he discovered what they meant.
“Al Azif.”
A literal translation would be “Book of Sounds.”
But in reality, “Al” is “The” in English, and Azif means the chirping of insects, strange sounds, or the wails of monsters—something along those lines.
This book was written around 738 CE in Damascus by an Arab named Abdul Al-Hazred.
The Necronomicon is the Greek translation of that very Al Azif.
Even from just this much, you could tell that finding information about the Necronomicon was extraordinarily easy. Just a search and results would pour out.
The reason was simple.
‘Because it’s a fictional book.’
That’s right. Al Azif—the Necronomicon—is originally a fictional book found only in novels. It doesn’t actually exist.
“Doesn’t actually exist.”
Then what were all the things he’d experienced? Hallucinations?
That couldn’t be.
Woo Ju wasn’t the only one there at the time. Hwa Ryeon had clearly seen what happened too.
Then it had to be one of two things.
Either something else wearing the guise of the Necronomicon.
Or the claim that it’s a fictional work is false, and the book truly does exist.
He couldn’t know which was true now. And there was only one way to resolve that question.
‘I should just ask directly.’
By going to work and asking Hwa Ryeon herself. After all, the place where he’d be working was the Inspection Bureau!
‘Better than brooding alone about it.’
If he hadn’t seen it at all, that would be different.
But since he’d already seen him holding the book openly, this approach would be better.
Woo Ju reached that conclusion and waited until the time to depart for work drew near.
After some time had passed that way.
‘All right.’
Woo Ju made ready to leave a little earlier than necessary.
In truth, there was nothing left to prepare—he’d packed everything already, so all that remained was to slip on his bag.
He decided to leave the book at home for now.
If that book worked the same way as the Iron Pipe, it would materialize whenever it pleased, whether he carried it or not.
There was no point hauling around dead weight just to keep it close.
He’d brought the Iron Pipe along for his own peace of mind, though.
‘Let’s go.’
And so Woo Ju stepped out of his apartment with confidence. He walked to the nearest station, boarded the subway, and made his way to the district where the building housing his new workplace stood.
Fortunately, he didn’t need to transfer lines—just a clean twenty minutes of travel.
‘So about thirty minutes door to door. The station’s only a five-minute walk from there, they said?’
Woo Ju nodded with satisfaction.
A workplace close to home—could you ask for better?
Though not for the reason one might think. His apartment wasn’t near the city center.
Quite the opposite, in fact. The Inspection Bureau building stood on the outskirts. But what did it matter? Close was close, and that suited him fine.
With these thoughts in mind, Woo Ju exited the station and headed toward the building’s location.
‘Is that it?’
Before long, he came upon an impressive-looking structure.
It was a fairly tall high-rise. Woo Ju adjusted his necktie and carefully stepped inside.
The lobby was simpler and more understated than he’d expected, with an information desk tucked toward the back.
He didn’t know what other workplaces did, but he’d only been told his start time—nothing else.
So he made his way to the desk and opened his mouth hesitantly.
“Um, this is my first day on the job.”
The woman behind the desk, who had a calm demeanor, smiled and spoke.
“Is that so? May I have your name, please?”
“Han Woo Ju.”
At this answer, her eyes widened slightly, and she gave him a peculiar look.
“Oh! So you’re that Han Woo Ju. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”
Woo Ju’s expression clouded with confusion. His first day, and people were already talking about him? What could they possibly have heard?
But instead of answering his unspoken question, the woman simply smiled and handed him something.
“Here. Your Access Card. Scan it to go through, then take the elevator to the seventh floor.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Have a good day.”
“You too. Thank you.”
With that brief exchange concluded, Woo Ju walked deeper into the building.
After scanning the Access Card, he found himself facing several elevators. He stepped into the first one to arrive.
‘Seventh floor, right.’
The elevator had buttons ranging from basement level four to the twelfth floor above ground.
Woo Ju pressed seven and reached for the close button.
“Wait, please!”
A voice called out from the lobby. He quickly hit the open button, and saw someone hurrying toward the elevator.
“Thank you so much……. Oh!”
As the person stepped in with a grateful bow, their eyes met his, and their expression shifted to one of surprise.
Woo Ju’s own face mirrored that shock.
“Chae Wol?”
“Woo Ju.”
It was indeed Chae Wol—the woman who’d taken the exam alongside him.
Woo Ju stepped to the side to make room.
“You’re heading to the seventh floor too?”
“Yes.”
Chae Wol nodded, settled into place, and then asked him carefully.
“Did they give you any special briefing?”
“A briefing? No. I only got my start time and the location. What about you?”
“Same here.”
As she spoke, Woo Ju glanced over at her.
Unlike during the exam, Chae Wol wore ordinary business attire.
‘I’d wondered if she’d keep wearing that hanbok even after officially starting.’
Apparently not.
Ding.
The elevator arrived at the seventh floor just as their conversation ended.
Woo Ju held the open button, waiting until Chae Wol stepped out before following her into the corridor.
‘So this is it.’
Woo Ju surveyed the hallway.
The seventh floor was quiet. The corridor felt somewhere between a research institute and a government office.
The air was slightly dry, and the faint smell of floor wax lingered in the background.
‘Come to think of it, I didn’t hear where we’re supposed to go.’
Looking back, the information desk had only told them to go to the seventh floor—not which specific location.
Chae Wol seemed to share the same confusion; she too was glancing uncertainly down the corridor.
And then.
Flicker.
The lights in the corridor suddenly blinked.
Woo Ju’s eyes narrowed reflexively, and he instinctively grabbed his bag.
Flicker.
The lights blinked again.
Chae Wol, sensing something amiss, cautiously brought her hand toward her chest.
This wasn’t just because of a flickering bulb.
The moment the lights began to flicker, the very air of the place shifted.
He’d felt this before—at the school.
That acrid, burnt smell. And the eerie chill that crept up from the base of his spine.
Flicker.
The light blinked once more.
And in that moment, both Woo Ju and Chae Wol saw it.
A human figure, appearing briefly at the far end of the corridor before vanishing.
It disappeared as the lights came back on, but the two who’d locked eyes with it knew they hadn’t imagined it.
Flicker.
The lights blinked again, and they saw the figure had drawn closer in the darkness.
Flicker, flicker. Each time the lights cut out and returned, it crept nearer.
And then.
Woo Ju was already drawing the Iron Pipe from his bag. And the moment the lights cut out once more.
He swung the pipe toward the figure that had materialized just steps away—without a shred of hesitation.
Crash!
A deafening boom erupted, and the approaching form vanished without a trace.
But Woo Ju didn’t let his guard down; his sharp gaze swept across the surroundings.
The ominous sensation still hadn’t faded.
Then, something caught his eye.
‘Paper?’
It was paper.
A single sheet cut into the shape of a person was fluttering down toward the floor.
Whoosh!
At the same moment, the lights that had been off for some time flared back to full brightness.
Suddenly, doors all along the corridor burst open and people began stepping out.
Confused, wondering if this was some other pattern in the test.
“Wow. You destroyed it in one hit?”
“Insane. The team leader said he was something special, but…”
“I told you so. I said it wouldn’t work.”
“A monster. An absolute monster.”
As they caught sight of Chae Wol and Woo Ju, they began offering their comments one by one.
The two exchanged increasingly bewildered looks.
Then one of them stepped forward and spoke.
“Employee Woo Ju and Employee Chae Wol, just hired today. That’s right, isn’t it?”
The speaker was a lanky man who stood nearly six-foot-three, with a lean build.
“…Yes.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The two answered the question.
The man who’d spoken smiled and said:
“Good to meet you. And congratulations.”
“Congratulations for what?”
Woo Ju asked reflexively.
The man gave a thumbs-up and replied:
“Seven seconds to elimination. That’s a record-breaking time. The previous record was fifteen seconds, set by Team Leader Hwa Ryeon.”
“Man, that monster of a team lead—Hwa Ryeon’s record just got broken.”
“And cut in half at that!”
“I knew you could do it!”
“Thanks to you, we pulled it off! I’ll buy you a coffee during lunch!”
People in the hallway, overhearing it all, turned to Woo Ju with looks of admiration and cheers.
Woo Ju stood bewildered for a moment, then belatedly grasped the situation and narrowed his brow.
Was this a test they were running on the new hire? That’s what it felt like.
“Here. This is the new record prize.”
“What is it?”
“A congratulations plaque. Pure gold, three grams.”
“Thank you!”
But the moment Woo Ju saw the plaque the man handed him, he couldn’t help laughing.
If it was going to be like this, he could do it every time he came in!
Continued in the next episode ▶
Calamity-grade Artifacts from Urban Legends Become Obsessed
Author
Lee Se-gye
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes your precious manuscripts.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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