The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 19

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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 from Urban Legends Develop Obsessions Chapter 19
Two humans. One malevolent entity. One iron pipe.
Normally, when humans face a malevolent entity, the humans grow tense while the entity schemes with sinister intent.
-Violence only begets more violence. Only truth can…….
Still, even in this unexpected situation, the malevolent entity attempted to fulfill its nature.
A sinister whisper designed to scatter the human’s thoughts.
But Uuju’s response was simple.
“Five.”
Shadows ripple. Saebyeok watched Uuju.
“Four.”
And when he spoke the next number, they both understood—Uuju wasn’t just reciting random figures.
“Three.”
“A malevolent entity isn’t the sort of thing that listens to threats.”
In the meantime, Saebyeok forced herself to stay composed, laying out her logic.
Not that Saebyeok was merely talk with no ability to back it up.
Even as she spoke, her hand slipped into her pocket to retrieve a tool issued to agency personnel, preparing to resolve this situation.
The presence dwelling in that stone statue was far more malevolent and powerful than she’d anticipated, and coming here without sufficient preparation was undoubtedly a mistake.
So even if she had to sacrifice herself, she would ensure Uuju walked out of this unharmed.
Whoever makes the mistake must bear the responsibility.
“Two.”
But Uuju seemed to pause at Saebyeok’s words, then simply continued counting.
Bewilderment deepened across Saebyeok’s face.
When she’d requested cooperation from the headquarters response team leader, she’d heard this wasn’t just an ordinary recruit—but she’d never been warned he was this reckless!
Still, in truth, Saebyeok herself was notorious in the Jeonju Branch for being reckless.
“Quit stalling!”
If you can’t stop them, join them.
This was all about momentum.
If you couldn’t talk them out of it, the right move was to cooperate.
“Want to watch everything get smashed to pieces? Even I can’t control this person when they’re angry!”
So Saebyeok thrust a finger at the stone statue and shouted, voice rising.
The candles illuminating the cave flickered back and forth.
People often say that sinister things are beings beyond human understanding, yet in another sense, they’re quite human indeed.
Do you know what that phrase “Urgent as Law” means, the one shamans and priests append to the end of their incantations?
It comes from the official documents of China’s early Han Dynasty, where it was used as a standard formula asking that the document be processed quickly according to law and regulation.
In East Asia, even ghosts cannot escape the framework of bureaucracy!
“One.”
And so Uuju pronounced the final number, pressing the entity.
“Wouldn’t sealing be better than being erased?”
Saebyeok attempted a sweet enticement from beside him.
-After all, what transcends understanding breeds fear.
At last, the stone statue began to speak again.
Uuju thought it was about to spout more nonsense and raised the iron pipe high. The statue’s words came faster.
-If the intention to spread truth brings destruction! How could I force my will upon that of my true self! Even I understand that there are times when one must retreat to achieve a greater path! I shall seal myself away, awaiting an even more chaotic age!
Once again, its tongue ran uselessly long, but roughly speaking, they caught the gist.
In other words, it was basically saying, openly surrender! I’ll do whatever you ask! Just spare me!—but hedging it with flowery language to sound less pathetic.
Uuju, iron pipe still raised, looked at Saebyeok and asked.
“What do you think?”
“If that entity doesn’t resist, we can seal it.”
“Good. Then let’s do it right now. After all, that’s the safest approach, isn’t it?”
Uuju said this and stepped closer to the statue, positioning the iron pipe directly at its head.
“But if you try anything funny, we’ll smash first and deal with cleanup later.”
Saebyeok’s expression grew complicated at that, but she eventually nodded.
“Fine, let’s do it!”
Though part of her wondered if this was right, another part recognized that sealing such a dangerous threat without any casualties would be a major success.
It would prevent secondary and tertiary damage as well.
“Then I’ll begin at once.”
Saebyeok walked forward and positioned herself beside Uuju, then began drawing various items from her pocket and laying them out.
A brush, ink, and a glass vial containing a shimmering red liquid.
Holding these, Saebyeok dipped the brush in ink without hesitation and began writing Chinese characters across the surface of the statue.
All karma is emptiness, sound alone is sin.
All karma is emptiness, yet sound alone is sin.
Evil words disturb the mind; demons are born from speech.
Wicked words confound the heart, and from those very utterances do spirits take their form.
Even as Saebyeok perspired in an endless cold sweat, she continued to murmur the verses aloud and inscribe them with her brush.
Uuju stood motionless, the iron pipe raised and aimed at the stone statue’s head.
Thus Saebyeok was able to continue the incantation without interruption.
“Blood as seal, seal the evil spirit.”
With blood as my mark, I bind that wicked soul.
The moment she finished writing those words upon the stone statue and poured the blood from the glass vial over it—
Shhhhh—
The blood trickled down from the statue’s head, overlapping the densely written characters before seeping into the black ink beneath.
As though they had always been one.
Crackle—
The shadow wavered, and the candles that had been illuminating the cave extinguished all at once, plunging them back into darkness.
Whoosh—
Light returned when Saebyeok picked up the mobile phone she’d set on the ground.
She swept the flashlight carefully across the stone statue and checked the wall behind it before exhaling in relief.
“Phew. It’s finished.”
“Has it been sealed?”
“Yes.”
Hearing this, Uuju noticed that Saebyeok’s pallid complexion gradually returned to its natural color.
The strange, uncanny presence that had emanated from the stone statue and the fragments broken from it had clearly vanished as well.
Only then did Uuju lower the iron pipe and speak.
“So what was this thing, exactly? You said it didn’t seem like an artifact created for deliberate purposes.”
“Hmm… From what I can see, that’s correct. It appears to have undergone corruption, deviating from its original intent.”
“Corruption?”
“Yes. The foundation of this place itself is quite poor. Ordinary objects left here tend to corrupt easily. But looking at this statue, there are traces that someone has made wishes before it.”
The earnest desires of humans influence objects.
Ordinarily, even when they do exert influence, it doesn’t usually cause dramatic change.
But what if the environment happens to align unfavorably?
“The object itself develops a twisted nature, or perhaps a malevolent entity naturally becomes entangled. This seems to be the latter.”
“I see.”
Uuju nodded at her explanation.
Looking at it himself, he had to agree this didn’t appear to be deliberately tampered with like the stake from last time.
Feeling a sense of relief in his heart, Uuju asked again.
“So what do we do with it now?”
“We can’t leave it as is, so I think we’ll need to move it to the branch. That said, I should make a call.”
“Of course.”
Uuju nodded. Saebyeok picked up her mobile phone and began operating it, then spoke with a troubled expression.
“There’s no signal.”
“Ah, then why don’t you go outside and call from there.”
“Um…”
Saebyeok looked at Uuju.
“I’m frightened. Would you mind coming along?”
“Oh… Yes.”
In the end, Uuju left the cave with Saebyeok. About thirty minutes later—
“Good day.”
Two robust men in hiking clothes arrived at the cave entrance. They too were field agents from the Jeonju Branch.
They placed the stone statue in a box they’d brought prepared, and Uuju descended the mountain with Saebyeok.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Yes. You as well, Saebyeok. Thank you for your assistance.”
“Not at all. Rather, thanks to you, we were able to resolve a dangerous situation ahead of schedule.”
Saebyeok offered her gratitude formally, and just as she was about to leave, she drove Uuju down to the main road.
Thanks to that, Uuju was able to catch a taxi and return home safely.
* * *
A sofa, by its nature, is made for sitting.
But Koreans use sofas for entirely different purposes—as a backrest when sitting on the floor, or as a bed substitute.
Uuju was no exception.
He had become one with the sofa, sprawling across it without restraint.
“Why are you doing that when there’s a perfectly good bed right there?”
Uuju’s mother happened to pass by and caught sight of it, offering a comment.
It was nagging, certainly, but the kind of nagging that felt warm and familiar. Before he’d taken the job, she would have told him to stop lounging about and do something productive.
Yet in his mother’s eyes now, as she looked at Uuju, there was unmistakable affection.
‘Who am I?’
A high-earner rivaling the major corporations!
Uuju remembered it well.
The moment he’d told his parents where he worked and what his salary was, he could see the joy light up their eyes.
His younger sister—she was so hard to read, like family and a stranger all at once—had stared at him with sparkling eyes.
She’d asked for more allowance, sure, but he’d given it to her in the end. She’d bounced around like a monkey, thrilled beyond measure.
In any case, Uuju turned to his mother with a content expression.
“I was contemplating life while looking at the ceiling, Mother.”
“…Are things hard? If it’s too much, tell me.”
But seeing the genuine concern on his mother’s face, he stopped at once.
“No, it’s not hard. I was just resting before heading out.”
“Right. You said you had business at the office today and would head back after?”
“Yes.”
Uuju nodded at his mother’s question.
It was already the third day since he’d come down to Jeonju. Normally, he should have gone back last night.
But he was still here because of a message that came the night before.
His team leader had told him to come in to the Jeonju Branch, handle one task, and head back up.
But since there was no rush, just so long as he arrived by ten o’clock, he’d eaten breakfast and been lounging on the sofa.
“All right. Your mother needs to get to work, so drive carefully on your way back.”
“Then let’s go down together. It’s about time I head out too.”
Since he was already fully prepared, Uuju sprang to his feet.
He’d been told casual clothes were fine, so he simply grabbed the jacket he’d draped over the chair and left the apartment with his mother.
As they rode the elevator down, they talked about his younger sister.
“Where did she disappear to so early this morning?”
“Some part-time work today, I think. Over near the hanok village.”
“Is that so?”
They chatted quietly, and before long the elevator reached the first floor.
“I’ll catch a taxi from here.”
“All right. Be careful. Call me when you get home this evening.”
“Will do.”
After exchanging farewells with his mother, Uuju headed outside the apartment building and hailed a taxi.
As it happened, the direction Uuju was heading was also toward the hanok village—roughly a ten-minute walk, if that.
“We’ve arrived.”
Not long after, the taxi pulled to a stop on a street in Jung-ang District.
“Thank you.”
Uuju paid and got out, scanning his surroundings. He soon spotted a familiar face.
“You’re early.”
It was Saebyeok.
Saebyeok wore a leather jacket and jeans, just as she had a few days ago. Today, though, she wasn’t wearing a helmet.
This task, too, was to be done with Saebyeok.
“Oh, yes. But this branch office building…”
Uuju trailed off, glancing to the side. There was a café there.
“That’s not it—it’s around back. Though honestly, the branch isn’t much. It’s just a signboard hanging on the building, really. Shall we talk as we walk?”
“Sure.”
Since there was no need to go inside the branch itself, Uuju nodded and walked alongside Saebyeok.
“The problem came up yesterday at lunch.”
Saebyeok spoke in an even tone.
“An artifact that was being kept at the branch vanished yesterday at lunch.”
“An artifact?”
“Yes. It was something kept under strict security, and there was no trace of anyone taking it. It simply… vanished.”
Hearing this, Uuju recalled something Hwa Ryeon had said.
That exceptional artifacts could sometimes move on their own, seeking out their true master.
But it wasn’t immediately relevant, so Uuju refocused on what Saebyeok was saying.
“And two agents who went to investigate the suspected location have gone missing.”
Agents going missing wasn’t a trivial matter.
The branch agents shouldn’t be significantly lower in skill than those at headquarters.
Saebyeok went on to explain in detail where the agents had gone, when contact was lost, and how it happened.
“That’s why finding the agents is our top priority right now.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Uuju nodded at Saebyeok’s last words and replied. Then curiosity stirred in him, and he asked her another question.
“What artifact went missing?”
Saebyeok answered with a somewhat grave expression.
“A mask of the Exorcist.”
She hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“Among the artifacts stored at the Jeonju Branch, it’s the most dangerous and powerful one.”
“I see…….”
Just as he was nodding in acknowledgment.
Thunk.
Something caught against his foot.
Uuju’s expression grew puzzled as he looked down at his feet.
And there he found a strange mask with four hollow eye sockets.
Continued in the next episode ▶
Catastrophe-Class Artifacts from Urban Legends Take Hold
Author
Lee Segyesa Jang
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
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※ 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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