The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 36

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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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Calamities Within Rumors — Episode 36
When I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
Woo Joo reached out reflexively, and the cool, rigid sensation of a steel pipe met his fingertips.
“Ah.”
Gripping it, Woo Joo’s eyes moved slowly across the room before he belatedly remembered he wasn’t home.
He exhaled with relief and slowly pushed himself upright.
‘I forgot.’
After being attacked yesterday and confirming that home wasn’t safe either, he’d come to the company dormitory to sleep.
For a moment, he’d forgotten all that and tensed up in alarm.
Naturally enough, the room was exactly as it had been before he fell asleep yesterday—nothing out of place.
Of course, even in sleep, Woo Joo hadn’t forgotten the dream he’d had.
Something had lunged at him in that dream, then he’d woken up and it vanished.
‘It was probably the same thing.’
Thinking back on what Hwa Ryeon had said when she left, she’d likely anticipated this.
And thinking that he’d simply swat it like a mosquito entering a room, she’d offered only brief advice.
“Huh.”
Woo Joo exhaled shortly, then immediately reported the incident to Hwa Ryeon via his phone before heading to the bathroom.
Hot water came out wonderfully from the shower. He noticed there was even a large bathtub, which he thought he’d try later.
After showering, Woo Joo changed clothes and checked the time.
“Hmm.”
He’d woken later than usual and bathed, yet work time was still quite a ways off.
Normally, he’d have to go outside, catch a bus or subway, and travel to the company entrance.
Now, already inside the building, he just needed to step out and take the elevator—that was all.
So he’d considered lying back down to rest longer, but then thought better of it since he’d already showered, so he got dressed.
‘I should have breakfast at least.’
Fortunately, the company had a small café that sold sandwiches and pastries, as well as a cafeteria that opened early.
No need to worry about food.
Woo Joo decided on a sandwich and coffee for today and left his room.
‘There are quite a few rooms here.’
The corridor had several doors along its length.
The layout of each room was probably much the same.
Woo Joo thought about this anew as he walked toward the elevator.
‘When you think about it, the Investigation Bureau really has money.’
This was something he often reflected on.
No matter how you slice it, the Investigation Bureau is a government agency.
But looking closely, whether it’s the internal facilities, the salaries, or the bounties—
It’s so generous you’d never believe it was a government organization.
Hwa Ryeon had once told him that this agency originally had a predecessor organization, and that it doesn’t run solely on government funding.
Beyond that, he hadn’t asked for details, so he didn’t know.
While thinking these various thoughts, Woo Joo arrived at the café on the second floor.
“Hello there.”
He entered the café, ordered a chicken sandwich and coffee, and made quick work of breakfast.
As time passed, people began trickling into the café one by one.
Some he’d seen around before, but there were plenty he hadn’t.
He didn’t know exactly how many people worked in the Investigation Bureau.
‘Since there are apparently classified divisions.’
Places whose department names, duties, and personnel aren’t made public.
Such places existed within the Investigation Bureau.
Aside from that, given the number of people working in the bureau, it was hard to know them all anyway.
After finishing breakfast, Woo Joo wandered around the second floor, observing the Investigation Bureau’s internal facilities, and made his way to the office around the time his shift was approaching.
“Good morning!”
“Ah, good morning.”
“Good morning.”
As he entered the office, his team leader Ryu Seon Dam and Chae Wol greeted him.
It seemed they were the only ones who’d arrived so far.
Woo Joo took his seat and naturally powered on his computer.
Then Ryu Seon Dam, the team leader, spoke to him.
“I heard about what happened yesterday. Are you feeling all right?”
“Ah, yes! I’m fine.”
“That’s a relief. Team Leader Hwa Ryeon is quite busy today and won’t be stopping by the office. And she said you’re absolutely not to go outside—just handle internal work.”
“I understand.”
It was something he’d anticipated to some degree.
Given the current situation, it made no sense for him to take on the work of handling Rumors outside the facility.
“So here’s the thing—today, why don’t the three of us take a walk through the Underground Level with Chae Wol?”
“The Underground Level? I understand.”
“Yes.”
Woo Joo nodded and gave his consent.
Underground Level patrols weren’t frequent, but they did happen from time to time.
Since his very first day, the Underground Level had housed the Rumors currently under the Investigation Bureau’s management.
‘Regardless of danger level, these are Rumors where processing is harder than Containment, or so I was told.’
That said, they weren’t simply left alone.
Various processing methods were devised, and they were dealt with whenever the opportunity arose.
Woo Joo himself had processed a Rumor on his first day, and had ventured down several times since to carry out processing work.
Ryu Seon Dam smiled warmly at their responses.
“Then we’ll head down once Cheong Woo and Baek Ho arrive.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
The brief exchange ended there.
Woo Joo began drafting a report while waiting for Cheong Woo and Baek Ho to arrive.
It was a report on the events he’d experienced yesterday.
He hadn’t received explicit instructions yet, but it was work that needed doing regardless. All such matters had to be compiled and documented in a report.
However, he kept out any mention of information leaks or the possibility of a spy in their midst.
That seemed like a sensitive issue, plainly enough.
“Good morning, everyone!”
Not long after he’d begun drafting, Baek Ho arrived at the office.
“Good morning.”
Cheong Woo arrived shortly after.
Neither of them had apparently heard about yesterday’s attack yet, so they exchanged greetings with bright faces before taking their seats.
Once both were seated, Ryu Seon Dam rose from his desk with his customary warm smile and spoke.
“I’ll be conducting a patrol of the underground management areas with Woo Joo and Chae Wol. We’ll handle anything that needs processing while we’re down there.”
“Understood.”
“Yes!”
Cheong Woo and Baek Ho gave simple nods of acknowledgment.
With that, Woo Joo and Chae Wol followed Ryu Seon Dam out of the office.
Ryu Seon Dam spoke only after pressing the button to descend into the Underground Level by elevator.
“I assume you both understand the reason we confine Rumors in the basement?”
“Yes.”
“I was told that we primarily contain Rumors where Containment is easier than processing.”
Ryu Seon Dam nodded at both answers and continued.
“Exactly. And here’s one more thing—Rumors fundamentally require people. Their energy, their fear. That’s what they feed on.”
Ryu Seon Dam spoke as he watched the descending floor counter.
“So if we contain them and manage them thoroughly, they grow weaker over time. They become easier to process.”
“That makes sense when you think about it.”
Chae Wol merely nodded, as if she already knew this, while Woo Joo replied with interest.
Woo Joo understood that Rumors could grow stronger or weaker as time passed.
For instance, in the modern age, people no longer fear tigers the way they once did.
When walking through mountains at night, people usually worry about getting lost or encountering strange individuals—they don’t worry about tigers, which are already extinct.
So Rumors involving tigers were no longer what they once had been.
Of course, there were Rumors that maintained their power independent of the times.
But that was a separate matter.
Generally speaking, what people feared changed with the times, and Rumors were affected accordingly.
Ryu Seon Dam spoke with a smile on his face.
“So in our team, rather than observing whether something is well-contained, we tend to take the perspective of asking—isn’t it about time we harvested that one?”
“I see.”
Woo Joo nodded and reflected on the word “Harvest.”
Vice-team leader Ryu Seon Dam was always kind and handled work cleanly, but occasionally he chose his words in peculiar ways.
Like just now.
Harvesting a Rumor, rather than processing it? Did that mean they actually used the harvested Rumors for something?
Woo Joo pondered this internally but chose not to voice such thoughts aloud.
Ding.
In the meantime, the elevator arrived at the Underground Level.
Ryu Seon Dam stepped out naturally and walked straight ahead, with Woo Joo and Chae Wol following behind.
The underground space, which he had not visited in several weeks, looked much the same as it had the last time he saw it.
A long corridor stretched out, with doors spaced at regular intervals.
Each door bore a nameplate inscribed with letters and numbers—affixed for administrative convenience.
‘The deeper you go inward, the older the rumors were when they were contained,’ he thought.
Naturally, the danger increased proportionally.
A long period of containment meant they had gone just as long without finding a way to dispose of them.
Or perhaps there was no way at all.
Ryu Seon Dam spoke as he walked deeper inside.
“Today we’ll be examining the rumors in Zone A primarily. Most of them were contained in the 1990s.”
“If they’ve been here that long, they must be quite dangerous.”
This time it was Chae Wol speaking, not Woo Joo.
Ryu Seon Dam nodded in response.
“Indeed. But they’re far less volatile now than they were immediately after containment. Rumors gain infinite vitality as they pass from mouth to mouth, yet they also fade away and succumb to death with remarkable ease.”
There was something forlorn in Ryu Seon Dam’s voice as he spoke.
It was an odd feeling.
As though he grieved the fading of rumors themselves.
While he was thinking such thoughts—
Flicker.
The lights suddenly blinked.
Ryu Seon Dam immediately stopped walking and signaled for them to halt as well.
“Mm.”
He then slowly examined the corridor, speaking in measured, deliberate tones.
“Something’s happened, it seems.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean…”
“There appears to be a problem deeper inside. If you need anything, I’d suggest you retrieve it all now.”
At his sudden words, Woo Joo and Chae Wol exchanged a glance before retrieving what they needed.
Chae Wol, as always, summoned the Bell and Spirit Blade. Woo Joo summoned the Leather Jacket, the Protective Gear, and the Steel Pipe.
More precisely, “summoned” was the right word—they had all been left in the office.
Chae Wol found the sight fascinating.
She had rarely gone to scenes with them, so the sight still seemed novel to her.
“It looks like we’re ready. Shall we go?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
The three of them then walked forward along the white corridor again.
After walking for about five minutes—
Just as they arrived at Zone B, Woo Joo understood what the “accident” Ryu Seon Dam had mentioned was.
A viscous liquid-like substance had spread across the entire corridor, and people lay collapsed in various places.
Ryu Seon Dam strode forward and knelt on one knee to examine their condition.
Meanwhile, the other two kept watch over the surroundings.
Presently, Ryu Seon Dam spoke.
“This is no mere accident.”
“Pardon?”
“What do you…”
“Yesterday, when you came to see Team Leader Hwa Ryeon, you heard about something, didn’t you?”
Ryu Seon Dam turned to look at Woo Joo as he spoke.
“That information was leaking from inside the Investigation Bureau.”
“…Yes.”
“Team Leader Hwa Ryeon suggested it was possible that someone had been captured and the information extracted. But I suspected the other scenario instead.”
The other scenario meant that someone inside had deliberately leaked the information.
In other words, there was a spy within the Investigation Bureau.
Ryu Seon Dam straightened the knee he had been kneeling on as he continued.
“It seems my suspicion was correct. It appears they decided to act before their identity could be discovered.”
“So this is…”
“Sabotage from someone on the inside. And—”
Ryu Seon Dam withdrew a pair of pristine white gloves from his pocket, pulled them on over both hands, then suddenly thrust his palm toward the right wall like a flash of lightning.
Crack!
At that, something emerged from that spot.
It was a Reptilian Human, camouflaged against the white walls.
“I think we’ve released a few rumors. The two of you should be careful as well.”
Woo Joo was about to reply that he understood. But then his instincts sent a warning.
Following that instinct, Woo Joo swung the steel pipe to the side without hesitation.
Crash—!
Something that had just been falling from the ceiling was struck by the steel pipe and sent flying to the side.
It too was a Reptilian Human, the same kind as the one whose neck Ryu Seon Dam had already broken.
“We really do need to be careful.”
“Yes. If they’ve decided to cause trouble in the Underground Level, I can guess what they’re after. Let’s keep moving.”
Chae Wol watched the two of them conversing with apparent ease and found herself wondering.
‘Are they even human?’
It felt like being the two-eyed person in a village of the one-eyed.
Continued in the next chapter ▶
Disaster-Class Artifacts from Rumor Obsess
Author
Lee Se-gyeo
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
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※ Pentagram is always looking forward to receiving precious manuscripts from writers.

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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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