The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 23

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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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Urban Legends of Calamity-Class Artifacts Obsess — Chapter 23
The moment Uuju reflexively reached for his phone upon seeing the invitation.
Only two people remained in the office.
Baekho and Chaewol, precisely.
Chaewol was on the opposite side of the room, but Baekho, sitting right beside him, had caught the gesture.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, well.”
It wasn’t until Baekho asked that Uuju realized he was still inside the office.
Even so, he kept the steel pipe in his grip and spoke with caution.
“I received something strange on my phone.”
“Something strange?”
“Yes. It looks like some kind of invitation. The contents aren’t ordinary.”
“Let me see.”
Uuju hesitated, wondering if showing this would drag the other two in as well, but then he recalled the rules written in the invitation.
Accompanying members were the two closest people. Which meant Baekho was already entangled in this without knowing it.
And Chaewol, staring over there with that puzzled expression.
“Here it is.”
So Uuju handed the phone to Baekho, who took it and immediately scrolled through the message.
“Hmm.”
After a moment, Baekho, having read the message, opened his mouth.
“An urban legend. It seems to randomly invite—or rather, kidnap—people.”
“I thought as much.”
If this had happened before he’d become entangled in various strange affairs, he would have dismissed it as a prank. But now he couldn’t.
He’d experienced these bizarre occurrences far too many times.
“I hope it’s just a spam text, but let’s assume everything in this message is true and act accordingly. Chaewol, you check the details too.”
Baekho said this and handed the phone to Chaewol as well, then immediately exhaled a long sigh and began rummaging through his desk drawer.
“If it’s coming, it should come early. Why wait until right at quitting time? And with barely anyone around.”
Uuju nodded at those words, showing his agreement.
No office worker could be happy about being suddenly asked to stay late right before leaving for the day.
“So opening that door will lead directly there, then.”
Soon enough, Chaewol had confirmed the message contents and returned the phone to Uuju, speaking as she did.
It was Baekho who answered.
“That seems to be the case. And… it probably won’t be easy.”
By the time he said this, Baekho had already pulled on a pair of leather gloves he’d never seen before and thrown on a coat.
Baekho frowned as he spoke.
“I just tried contacting people on my phone, but everything’s blocked. Like this.”
Then Baekho showed both Uuju and Chaewol his phone screen.
[Grim Ocean Aquarium Notice]
Greetings. This message is sent as guidance to those who have received the honor of becoming companions to the inviter.
The opening of Grim Ocean Aquarium….
It was a message similar to what Uuju had received.
“No matter what you click, this text is all that appears. Same with the computer. All lines of communication are cut off.”
“For it to affect even the Surveillance Bureau’s equipment….”
“Right. Well, let’s consider ourselves lucky though. At least we’re filling three slots instead of leaving them to uninvolved civilians, yeah?”
Baekho gave a dry chuckle as he spoke, then rose from his seat.
“Everyone, let me know when you’re ready.”
“Roger.”
“Understood.”
Chaewol gathered her Spirit Knife and Bell—extensions of herself—and tucked talismans into her pockets.
Uuju pulled out the Bangsangsi Mask he’d stashed in his bag and put it on, then grabbed the bag containing the Necronomicon just to be safe.
“I’m ready.”
“I’m ready too.”
As Chaewol then announced her own preparations were complete, Baekho swept his gaze over both of them, nodded, and spoke.
“Good. Then let’s do a final check that nothing’s missing, and we’ll head out. I’ve left a note.”
True to his word, on the team leader and vice team leader’s desks lay a note Baekho had written, laying out the current situation.
Quite the efficient senior.
“Let’s go.”
The three of them lined up before the door. Then Baekho, leading the way, opened it.
He was wondering if it would be fine if someone other than Uuju, the one who actually received the invitation, opened the door.
“Hmm….”
Unfortunately, those hopes were betrayed almost instantly.
Beyond the door, there should have been a perfectly ordinary white-toned hallway.
But what lay beyond it now was a passage suffused with a deep navy light.
Uuju rolled his eyes, surveying the passage.
The passage’s navy hue wasn’t from lighting of that color—it came from the walls themselves, which were glass.
Beyond the glass walls, water shimmered in a murky, somber light.
It was as though they’d constructed a glass corridor down at the ocean floor.
Baekho stared at the passage with narrowed eyes, then spoke.
“Move slowly.”
If they’d intended to wait inside the office for someone else to handle it, they wouldn’t have opened the door in the first place.
But who would come to rescue them? They were none other than the Surveillance Bureau’s Supernatural Incident Response Team.
It was overtime they hadn’t scheduled, but this fell squarely within their purview.
Whoosh.
The three of them entered the passage quietly.
They’d debated whether to close the door behind them, and in the end decided they would.
If something infiltrated the office, it could cause unforeseen damage—that was the reasoning.
After closing the door, they moved forward slowly.
‘So far, the passage itself seems normal enough.’
Uuju walked at the rear, studying the corridor as they went.
He’d worried that a creature might charge at them the moment they entered, but thankfully that didn’t happen.
Moreover, the passage they were traversing now didn’t radiate any significant sense of danger.
Yet whenever he looked at the water beyond the glass, his guard shot up. It was almost an instinctual response.
‘Is something dangerous lurking in that water?’
Or perhaps the water itself was the danger.
Either way, both possibilities existed, so he couldn’t jump to conclusions. There simply wasn’t enough information yet.
The three of them walked the long passage in silence.
Occasionally, Uuju sensed something like a gaze from the water, but when he turned to look, there was nothing there.
“A door.”
After a long stretch, Baekho pointed ahead and spoke.
Just as he said, there was a door—an ordinary-looking one with a sign above it that read: “Welcome to Grim Ocean Aquarium.”
Baekho approached it slowly, then spoke again, as if he’d noticed something.
“There’s something next to the door.”
Once he said that, Uuju saw it too.
It was a laminated sheet of paper, but they had to get close to make out its contents.

Welcome. Thank you for visiting Grim Ocean Aquarium.
To ensure a pleasant and safe visit, please carefully review the following precautions.
[Visitor Guidelines]
1. The aquarium’s opening and closing times may change without notice depending on circumstances. Please listen carefully to all announcements.
2. This aquarium consists of 4 floors above ground and 3 floors below. From B2 onwards are staff-only areas. Please refrain from entering.
3. Some passages may be closed for inspection. Even if you see other routes, please avoid using them and stick to the designated paths.
4. Please follow the viewing guide lines marked on the floor. This aquarium accepts no responsibility for incidents occurring after deviating from the designated route.
5. If your reflection in the tank glass appears different from reality, please move immediately to the next section.
6. Please do not wave or speak loudly to the ■■■ inside the tanks.
7. All staff at this aquarium are delighted to welcome our guests.
8. Flash photography is prohibited in the beluga exhibition area. Should a beluga display ■■ to visitors, please exit the area quickly.
9. This aquarium…….
It was a notice so densely packed with rules that merely reading it felt suffocating.
“Rule-based, then,” Baekho murmured.
He spoke in a measured tone, then began reading it repeatedly—as if committing every word to memory.
Chaewol and Uuju also read through it carefully.
After some time had passed,
Baekho spoke again.
“The main exit seems to be straight ahead, on the opposite side.”
“Yes. And to reach there, we’ll need to go through the second floor.”
That was correct.
There was no way to exit directly from the first floor. The structure required passing through the second floor to reach the exit.
After pointing out several other important rules, Baekho spoke in a serious tone.
“Our primary objective is swift escape. However, if we encounter anyone needing rescue, they become the priority. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
“Good. Let’s go then.”
Baekho strode toward the door and pulled the handle.
When exploring a new urban legend, one must be cautious, yet simultaneously cannot afford to lose confidence.
As Baekho had said before, urban legends instinctively prey on those who show weakness.
Thus the three of them crossed the threshold without hesitation.
The interior of the aquarium was exceptionally bright and cheerful. Unnaturally so.
Yet beyond the glass, the darkness was equally unnatural, obscuring whatever lay within, and the sheer scale of those tanks emanated something profoundly unsettling.
‘What in the world is in there?’
While Uuju pondered this, he didn’t neglect to examine the floor beneath his feet.
There, marked according to the rules, was a “viewing guideline” painted in white.
For now, they would move according to the rules.
Their goal was escape, after all—not to resolve this urban legend.
Tap, tap.
Baekho, Chaewol, and Uuju advanced at a measured pace, neither too slow nor too fast.
Except at the outset, they fixed their gaze forward.
Remarkably, they encountered no obstacles while crossing the first floor.
Occasionally, something massive stirred behind the glass, but all three ignored it thoroughly.
Splat.
Sometimes something almost human-shaped pressed its hands and face against the aquarium glass, staring at them intently—but they ignored that too.
The observation area where something writhed beneath the floor was likewise disregarded. They simply advanced, relentlessly forward.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
At the top of the aquarium.
On the fourth floor, a group of people had gathered.
All wore identical black formal suits, and remarkably, each had a white mask covering their face.
“About halfway through now?”
“Yes. Quite a number have been gathered in such a short span.”
They occupied one section, conversing with evident leisure.
“To produce a few usable instruments, we’ll probably need to push another ten to twenty people into this place.”
“That shouldn’t take long, I’d wager. Once people set foot here, it’s nearly impossible to escape.”
“True enough. That’s how most rule-based urban legends work.”
The defining characteristic of rule-based urban legends.
It was this: you might think you can survive simply by following the rules, but doing so is extraordinarily difficult.
The legends constantly tempt you to break those rules.
This aquarium was no different.
For now it merely wore the placid skin of rules, but underneath lurked immense malice.
“Still, it’s an ideal environment for crafting tools.”
Which was precisely why they were here. Their sect favored urban legends of this particular type.
Urban legends where people died in droves.
The masked figures checked on something, surveyed their surroundings, then addressed the person in the center.
“The artifact is secure?”
“It is.”
The one who answered fiddled with the circular disk in his hands as he spoke.
“But isn’t it rather dangerous? I’ve heard this artifact is extremely temperamental.”
The disk in his grip bore intricate mystical characters etched densely across its surface. It was an artifact requisitioned for this operation.
“It’s temperamental, that’s true. The performance is excellent, but it has a habit of vanishing abruptly.”
There was nothing to be done about it.
Black Grade—the lowest rank. Artifacts entrusted to initiates of their standing inevitably came with some flaw.
This one was temperamental and prone to changing owners easily, yet its functionality remained uncompromised.
If anything, for its grade, it was an exceptionally fine specimen.
One of them scratched beneath their mask and spoke.
“Even so, this place is sealed, so we’ll be fine. No entity of note would ever wander in here anyway. And this thing has a fondness for the mentally unbalanced.”
“The Surveillance Bureau operatives wouldn’t qualify then.”
“Right. All they have over there are rigid types.”
“Exactly. We just have to wait outside while our capture teams feed people in. If anyone looks like they might escape, we simply stop them.”
They chuckled softly.
As long as the artifact protected them, there would be no problems, no matter how dangerous this place was.
Though how long that would last, they couldn’t say.
* * *
Uuju climbed the stairs quietly alongside the others.
Crossing the first floor took longer than expected. The space was far more expansive than they’d anticipated.
Still, they were fortunate no problems arose. If things continued this way, they’d escape without incident.
Or so Uuju thought.
“Congratulations!”
“Congratulations!”
“Congratulations!”
Suddenly, from the shadows beside them, something burst forth without warning.
They were employees—staff in uniforms, no less.
Uuju stared directly at the employees wearing fish-shaped masks on their faces and sprite-patterned uniforms and spoke with precision.
“You have been selected in our special drawing! Please follow us to claim your prize!”
“Please follow us!”
“Please follow us!”
At those words, the gazes of Baekho, Chaewol, and Uuju intersected.
This was a matter not explicitly written in the rules. Or rather, there wasn’t exactly an absence of related rules.
-13. The staff of this aquarium are doing their best for our guests. Therefore, please follow their instructions. Any guest who disobeys an employee’s instructions will have their guest status revoked, along with that of any accompanying guests.
Revocation of guest status.
The implication sounded dangerous at first glance.
Uuju deliberated. Then he decided quickly.
“The prize isn’t necessary. I’ll just finish viewing the exhibit.”
Baekho nodded at those words. A suitable response, he seemed to say.
“Denied.”
But the employee spoke to Uuju in a stiff, robotic voice.
“You cannot refuse to claim your prize.”
“Please follow us.”
Uuju deliberated again.
If he’d been alone, he would have picked up the Steel Pipe by now.
But the presence of the other two prevented him from doing so. If a “problem” arose, their guest status would certainly be revoked as well.
‘Perhaps it’s better to go along for now?’
As Uuju thought this to himself—
“Uuju.”
“Yes?”
“Even if a problem occurs after we split up, we’re still companions, so our guest status will be revoked anyway.”
“Ah.”
He was right.
If Uuju ever needed to use the Steel Pipe after following them, he wouldn’t hold back—not to protect himself. And then the other two, separated as they were, would face consequences too.
That would create problems for the others as well.
Baekho had pointed this out. And then, smiling wryly, he continued.
“So let’s try talking to them. Those things obviously aren’t people.”
Uuju understood instantly what Baekho meant by “talking.”
Before the employee could detect anything amiss from their exchange, Uuju swiftly swung the Steel Pipe.
Crash—!
The two nearest employees were sent flying into the distance.
But one remained.
And the “mask” on the head of the last employee split open, and a voice poured out.
“Rule violation…….”
Bang!
Regrettably, the employee couldn’t finish speaking.
The Steel Pipe had sent it to join its fellow employees.
“Babbling about rules.”
Rules that were clearly designed to bend things to the preferences of whoever entered—there was no reason to follow them.
And though they didn’t know it, there was one rule that absolutely must be followed when dealing with Uuju.
It was the rule that if you try any tricks, the Steel Pipe could be flying your way at any moment.
“Let’s go.”
Uuju wanted to explain this rule quickly to everyone.
To be continued in the next episode ▶
How Calamity-Class Artifacts Become Obsessed Within Urban Legends
Author
Lee Segyesa
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publisher
Grae Publishing
Contact Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited, and violators may be subject to criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram eagerly awaits the precious manuscripts of our authors.

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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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