The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 102

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

Urban Legends and Catastrophe-Class Relics 102
Woo Ju reflexively adjusted his grip on the iron pipe, but the moment he saw the reaction of the people before him, his eyes narrowed.
If it had been a Crocodile Bird, they would have screamed the instant they laid eyes on him.
Their sole purpose had been to summon the Giant, after all.
But these people before him instead wore expressions of surprise and fear.
Woo Ju glanced sideways at Baek Ho.
Baek Ho deliberated only briefly before speaking.
“They seem to be human. Still, don’t let your guard down.”
Woo Ju nodded at Baek Ho’s words. He’d been thinking the same thing.
The likelihood they were human was high. But he couldn’t afford to lower his guard.
Being human didn’t automatically make someone safe.
The Inspection Bureau fundamentally never made light of human life—they did everything in their power to rescue those who could be saved.
Yet rescue wasn’t always the top priority.
Because saving the person in front of you wasn’t always the right choice.
‘In the end, what matters is bringing the supernatural incident to a close, eradicating the Supernatural Being.’
If they abandoned the resolution of the incident to save one person standing before them, it could result in casualties numbering more than ten.
That would actually be the better outcome.
The death toll could easily reach a hundred, or a thousand.
This situation was no different.
They hadn’t found Yeon Woo yet, and their understanding of the situation remained incomplete.
For that reason, rather than displaying Inspection Bureau credentials or other trustworthy identification, Woo Ju and Baek Ho maintained a cautious demeanor as they spoke.
“Are you… people?”
Baek Ho addressed them in a voice that trembled with appropriate uncertainty.
They exchanged glances with one another before responding in hushed tones.
“O-of course we’re people. Are you the ones who are human? Those… those things aren’t, are they?”
At the word “things,” Baek Ho paused before asking:
“When you say ‘things,’ do you mean the creatures in that Park?”
“Yes! Those——”
The middle-aged man who had been speaking as their representative raised his voice before abruptly falling silent.
Then, in an even quieter tone than before, he continued.
“Th-those strange things. They were s-screaming. And people were attacked by that weird… giant——”
He’d heard enough to piece together what had happened.
They too had encountered the Crocodile Birds. Several of them had been killed as a result.
Baek Ho spoke.
“…We were just coming back from avoiding those same things. For now, if we’re going to keep talking, let’s move somewhere more sheltered.”
As he said this, he glanced toward one direction. There stood the Giant.
The other group, following Baek Ho’s gaze to the Giant, nodded frantically with frightened expressions.
And so they made their way to a building nearby.
In the basement of that building there was a Karaoke Room, and it seemed the people they’d met weren’t the entire group—there were several others sheltering inside.
But among them was someone entirely unexpected.
The moment Woo Ju spotted the figure, he started to cry out in recognition but barely caught himself.
He could see that Baek Ho beside him had his mouth firmly shut.
Moreover, when the other person noticed Woo Ju and Baek Ho, they showed a brief flash of surprise before quickly averting their gaze elsewhere.
‘Why is that?’
Woo Ju hesitated only a moment before drawing his conclusion.
For now, it would be more advantageous for them to pretend not to know each other.
The others barely registered the brief surprise on Woo Ju’s face and thought nothing suspicious of it.
How could they not startle upon seeing someone wearing a mask on their head, after all?
That was right.
The person in the Karaoke Room was none other than Yeon Woo.
She had been blending naturally among the other survivors.
“There are quite a few people here.”
Woo Ju scanned the interior of the Karaoke Room as he spoke.
Though there was still a tremor in his voice—whether from lingering shock or something else—the others gave it no thought.
After all, given the circumstances, anyone would be shaken or frightened.
After all, they had abruptly found themselves in a world that was similar yet different from their own.
“Yes. We can assume that everyone in this vicinity is here,” the middle-aged man who had initiated the conversation answered Woo Ju.
“Originally there were only four of us, but these two joined us afterward, and finally, that person there joined as well.”
The middle-aged man’s final gesture pointed to Yeon Woo.

He spoke then, his tone cautious.
“May I ask where you two have come from?”
That single question—and the appearance of these people—told him much.
They were wary of Woo Ju and Baek Ho now. It wasn’t simply because they were strangers.
‘They’ve searched through almost everything in this area, it seems.’
Hadn’t they just said so themselves?
They’d said almost everyone in the vicinity would have gathered here.
If they’d stayed in one place the whole time, they couldn’t have made such a claim.
There would be no way to know if other people existed elsewhere.
But if they’d been moving around, searching for others—that was different.
‘They’ve already swept through the area once, and then people suddenly appear. They find that strange.’
Still, the response to such suspicion was remarkably straightforward.
“We only woke up two hours ago, near that park over there.”
A simple, honest answer would suffice.
They had arrived here merely two hours before.
These people, judging by their condition, looked as though they’d been here at least several days.
So answering that they’d only recently regained consciousness here was sufficient.
Moreover, Woo Ju had no intention of letting the conversation slip from their control—and Baek Ho felt the same way.
“Would it be possible for us to stay here awhile?”
Instead of fielding more questions, Woo Ju asked this, and the man considered before nodding.
“In a situation like this, we should stick together. It’s not my building anyway. Make yourselves comfortable.”
“Thank you. We will, then.”
Woo Ju bowed his head respectfully.
The conversation ended there.
The middle-aged man appeared to have more questions, but deciding there was no rush, he didn’t press them.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to sit directly next to the others who’d been there before.
Though no one explicitly stopped him, their discomfort was plain to see.
It wasn’t a serious problem, though.
The karaoke room had plenty of separate chambers.
“This works nicely. We can have a quiet conversation, just the two of us.”
Woo Ju and Baek Ho claimed a room of reasonable size and went in to talk.
Being a karaoke room, it had adequate soundproofing, so they could speak without worrying about others’ attention.
Though they did need to keep their voices modulated somewhat.
“That’s right. Staying a few days might not be bad at all. The layout has multiple rooms separated from one another.”
Considering the special qualities of this place, it was better even than a hotel.
Hotels were normally on ground level, not underground.
In this district, underground had an overwhelming advantage for survival compared to the surface.
Unless one was truly unlucky, there was virtually no chance a Giant’s gaze would reach them here.
Then Baek Ho spoke.
“In any case, it’s a relief we found her.”
The subject was left unspoken, but what he meant to find was obvious.
It was Yeon Woo, naturally.
Simply confirming Yeon Woo’s safety had already accomplished their first objective.
“Yes. Now the remaining tasks are to resolve this situation and find clues in the process, aren’t they?”
“That’s right. It won’t be easy, but we’ve done something like this before, so we can manage.”
Baek Ho answered thus, then fell silent in thought before speaking again.
“However, if this is the work of the same person as last time, we should expect some variables.”
“I agree.”
Woo Ju nodded.
If they’d been confident they could resolve this incident using exactly the same method as before, neither he nor Baek Ho would be moving with such caution.
Even if that approach wasn’t easy, it was well within what their current team could handle.
After all, they had someone who’d already resolved a situation like this once, along with Woo Ju’s formidable Combat Ability and Yeon Woo’s Detection Ability.
The problem was there was no guarantee it would go that way this time.
There was clear evidence that a Mastermind existed behind this incident.
In other words, someone had artificially engineered this situation.
Therefore, it was highly likely he’d laid traps.
The reason Woo Ju and Baek Ho had approached the gathered people so carefully was precisely because of this.
‘A trap set by that Mastermind might be hiding among them.
A Malevolent Entity disguised as an ordinary victim, waiting to strike from behind.
A fairly traditional method. One that’s easy to fall for even while suspecting it.
That was why Woo Ju hadn’t pretended to recognize Yeon Woo immediately.
‘Yeon Woo must have reached a similar conclusion.’
So he was probably mixing in with that group and extracting information as they went.
How exactly he managed to blend in naturally while wearing that mask was still a mystery, though……
In any case, Woo Ju thought things through to that point, then turned his head back toward Baek Ho and spoke.
“So what do we do now?”
They’d finished sorting out the general situation.
What mattered was how they moved forward from here.
Baek Ho stroked his chin at the question, then opened his mouth.
“For now, we need to move with Yeon Woo. We can’t stay here indefinitely.”
“That makes sense.”
At least they’d confirmed that this place seemed reasonably safe.
So there was no need to move the people along with them—in fact, doing so would be more dangerous.
‘Once we solve the problem anyway, the people here will naturally be able to leave on their own.’
In other words, they could rescue them without keeping them close.
“But first, we should talk with Yeon Woo.”
Baek Ho said this while looking toward the door.
Just then, someone’s head suddenly appeared in the small window of the door.
A head far too large for the window to contain.
More precisely, it was a person wearing a mask.
Baek Ho, seeing Yeon Woo appear with perfect timing, let out a soft laugh and spoke.
“Speak of the devil.”
Then he gestured for him to come in, and Yeon Woo promptly opened the door and entered.
He quietly closed the door behind him, then hurried over to Woo Ju and Baek Ho and spoke.
“I’m sorry for pretending not to know you earlier!”
“Don’t apologize—we did the same thing. But what happened?”
Yeon Woo answered Baek Ho’s question immediately.
“When I suddenly opened my eyes, everything around me was empty. You seniors weren’t anywhere. And.”
Yeon Woo spoke in a voice that trembled slightly.
“The air around me felt unusually heavy. So I thought something must have happened, and I started hiding and observing the situation.”
After that, things went roughly as expected.
He’d encountered that group while wandering, joined them to gather information, and moved around with them.
Baek Ho listened to all of this, then spoke.
“Did you notice anything odd or suspicious?”
“Hmm.”
Yeon Woo thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Actually, there is one thing that’s been bothering me.”
“What is it?”
“You know that middle-aged man you were talking with earlier?”
He was probably referring to the Middle-aged Man. Baek Ho nodded, and Yeon Woo spoke again.
“That man knows an unusual amount about this space.”
To be continued ▶
Urban Legends and the Obsessions of Catastrophe-Class Relics
Author
Lee Se-gye
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Gra Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes submissions from writers.

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