The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 58

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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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Catastrophe-Class Relics Attached to Urban Legends — Episode 58
It wasn’t uncommon for only two people to be assigned to a specific mission.
But Woo Ju had almost never been deployed solo, and certainly never as a senior taking a junior with him.
Well, it hadn’t even been a full year since he’d joined.
It wasn’t that he lacked confidence, but he did think it seemed a bit fast.
In response to Woo Ju’s unspoken doubts, Hwa Ryeon offered a more detailed explanation.
“Normally, I’d have stretched out the probationary period longer.”
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Hwa Ryeon’s mouth.
“But the workload has exploded lately. If we can get even one more person ready for solo assignments, it’ll take a huge load off us.”
“I see.”
Of course, no matter how short-staffed they were, if Woo Ju’s abilities had been lacking, they wouldn’t have assigned him to a mission in a senior position like this.
Just look at Chae Wol — she still wasn’t being deployed solo.
In other words, they were putting Woo Ju on solo assignments faster precisely because they recognized his competence.
And it doubled as an opportunity to teach the new recruit.
“It’s not a difficult assignment, naturally. It’s just the kind that requires some physical work.”
“That’s good.”
He could think his way through problems if he had to, but really, the easiest solution was always the one you could just muscle through.
“What exactly is the mission?”
When Woo Ju asked, Hwa Ryeon handed over the files.
“It happened in a residential area.”
Woo Ju took the documents and skimmed through them while listening to her explanation.
An old house in the middle of the city center.
A few months ago, rumors had started circulating among the local residents that something was strange about it, and when an Inspection Bureau agent went to investigate, they discovered there was definitely something inside.
“Hmm. Based on what’s written here, it doesn’t seem particularly dangerous?”
“Of course, what’s in those files isn’t the whole story. The agent who went in first only did basic reconnaissance, so they really only looked at the absolute minimum.”
Woo Ju nodded.
“Resolving” urban legends and curse cases was mainly the job of the response teams.
The agent who’d been sent in earlier was probably from a department that specialized in search and reconnaissance operations.
“But with you, I’m confident you’ll handle it without any major problems. The physical side of things should be right up your alley.”
“Understood.”
To be honest, even spirits and such weren’t much of a problem for him to handle, though he still had to be careful about them.
But this mission’s target had physical form to begin with.
That meant Woo Ju could handle it far more easily.
That was probably why they’d assigned the mission to him and Yeon Woo, the new recruit.
“Then, shall we head out right away?”
“Yeah. Come back safely.”
At Hwa Ryeon’s words, Woo Ju got to his feet and immediately began preparing to leave.
Beside him, Yeon Woo quickly gathered his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and watched Woo Ju.
“I’m ready!”
“Good. Let’s go.”
That’s how Woo Ju and Yeon Woo left the office.
Their destination was the underground parking lot. Woo Ju didn’t have a car yet, but that wasn’t a problem.
They could rent a vehicle during work hours.
With Woo Ju at the wheel and Yeon Woo in the passenger seat, the two of them exited the underground garage and headed toward their destination.
The drive was relatively quiet.
They didn’t have much of a personal connection yet, and Woo Ju wasn’t the chatty type anyway.
The silence broke when they were almost at their destination.
“Senior, do you handle a lot of assignments?”
“Hmm. I haven’t been with the Bureau that long either, so I haven’t done that many.”
For how long he’d been employed, the volume was decent, but the absolute number still wasn’t that large.
Yeon Woo nodded, then seemed to remember something and spoke up.
“Oh! I just remembered — you don’t have to speak formally with me!”
“Really? Oh, same goes for you then — you can drop the formality too.”
“I’m fine with keeping it!”
After Yeon Woo’s response, Woo Ju thought for a moment before speaking.
“Alright then. I’ll drop it on my end, so you can do whatever feels natural for you.”
There was no real reason to insist on formality.
While they were talking, Woo Ju asked something that had been on his mind.
“When did you start seeing spirits?”
“Since I was little. I think I started seeing them around elementary school.”
“It’s been a while. Things haven’t been too difficult for you?”
“Not really. At first, I didn’t even notice it was inconvenient. I didn’t know what spirits really were, didn’t know other people couldn’t see them. Only figured it out once I got a little older.”
“I suppose so….”
When you’re that young, it’s hard to notice the difference or understand what it truly means.
As they talked, the car had already slipped into a quiet Residential Area.
Not the kind of neighborhood lined with luxury homes—rather, a place where older buildings clustered together.
The destination stood out immediately.
Compared to the surrounding structures, one Two-Story House looked distinctly more weathered.
Moss clung to patches of the perimeter wall, and all the windows had curtains drawn tightly from within.
But more unsettling than any of that was the atmosphere itself.
As if the saturation had been drained from this place alone. Or perhaps only the air around it hung darker?
One look was enough to make the skin crawl.
Still outside, Woo Ju had not yet put on his mask. He turned to Yeon Woo. “What do you sense?”
“How does it feel?”
Yeon Woo, who wore his mask constantly regardless of circumstance, replied at once.
“There’s… a lot of them here.”
As Woo Ju had felt before, Yeon Woo’s Detection Ability outpaced his own.
Woo Ju wasn’t insensitive to such things, but Yeon Woo was genuinely exceptional in that regard.
Just yesterday, Woo Ju had asked Hwa Ryeon directly why Yeon Woo had been chosen, and she’d said that ability was the primary reason.
“But they’re all looking inward. Specifically in one direction.”
“Which direction?”
“The second floor. Deeper in.”
Hearing that, Woo Ju recalled the contents of the files.
Among the reconnaissance agent’s notes was a mention that the second floor seemed particularly dangerous.
For that reason, it hadn’t been properly investigated.
The account seemed accurate enough.
‘The main body’s likely up there.’
Though the second floor hadn’t been confirmed, examining the other information available painted a rough picture of what awaited them.
A case similar to the ‘Painting’ they’d dealt with before, probably.
Woo Ju organized his thoughts and spoke to Yeon Woo. “Then let’s take it slow and enter.”
“Understood!”
The two of them walked slowly toward the target house.
Once they drew near, they quietly retrieved the items they’d brought.
Putting on the mask, gripping the Iron Pipe. They didn’t pull out the Necronomicon yet.
It could be retrieved anytime, and it didn’t seem particularly necessary for this task.
Once their preparations were complete.
“Let’s go.”
Woo Ju grasped the handle of the gate and pulled.
With a creak—the old hinges groaned as the door swung open.
The scene beyond the open gate differed little from the building’s exterior: neglected, abandoned, clearly long left to decay.
“Hm.”
Woo Ju narrowed his eyes.
Now that he wore the mask, Woo Ju could see the ‘spirits’ Yeon Woo had mentioned.
Hazy forms, like dense gray mist gathered into human silhouettes.
“Are they looking at us right now?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
Yeon Woo nodded, his words hesitant.
The moment the gate opened, countless spirits around the house had turned to face them.
But they made no move to approach. They simply stood in place, staring.
Woo Ju watched them for a moment, then strode forward with measured steps.
As long as they didn’t attack first, he had no intention of swinging the Iron Pipe.
Whatever plagued this house likely had nothing to do with those spirits.
After crossing the yard, they reached the Front Door, which like the gate bore no lock.
Woo Ju opened it and stepped inside.
“Whoa.”
The exclamation escaped unbidden.
The moment he crossed the threshold, what greeted him was utterly strange.
Dolls.
Dolls everywhere—from the entrance all the way inward, packed densely together.
There they stood, countless and watching.
Dolls usually conjure images of something cute and soft, but the sight before him now was anything but charming.
“Creepy.”
Inside the dark house, all the lights were off.
Dolls packed so densely that there was barely space to set foot down.
And the dolls themselves were far from normal—deliberately crafted to look wrong, it seemed.
Some had three legs; others had eyes crammed all over their faces.
Each one was unsettling enough on its own, but clustered together like this, they were impossible not to find disturbing.
“G-ghosts,” Yeon Woo stammered slightly, “seem less scary than this.”
Yeon Woo offered that observation with a slight stutter.
Woo Ju nodded in agreement.
Honestly, ghosts and monsters had stopped frightening him lately—but this place genuinely unsettled him.
After examining the dolls for a moment, Woo Ju pressed forward.
With so many dolls in the way, every step meant squeezing between them.
“Perfect environment for spirits to latch onto,” Yeon Woo observed.
“Right? Even a ghost passing by would be tempted. Though the dolls themselves aren’t the problem.”
As unsettling as they looked, the dolls themselves posed no real threat.
The files hadn’t mentioned them either—the problem was on the second floor.
So Woo Ju skipped a thorough sweep of the first floor and headed straight for the stairs leading up.
The moment he reached the staircase in the living room.
A chill ran down his spine.
‘Something’s definitely here.’
At the same instant, Yeon Woo spoke in a trembling voice.
“Horrible… I can feel it. The aura.”
Instead of answering, Woo Ju simply nodded.
Then, gripping the iron pipe tightly, he began climbing the stairs slowly.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Midway up, he heard something like footsteps from above.
That shouldn’t have been possible—no one lived in this house.
It had been abandoned for over ten years.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
Yet the footsteps were unmistakably clear—coming from right near the stairs.
But Woo Ju didn’t stop; he continued climbing until he reached the top.
‘Nothing here.’
The sound had come from right by the stairs, but nothing was visible now.
Yet the sense of dread had grown far more intense.
The second floor looked nothing like the first—no dolls at all.
It was strangely empty, in fact. Not a single piece of furniture, not even a small decoration.
Then Yeon Woo spoke.
“It’s the inner room.”
Woo Ju’s gaze shifted to the far room. He’d brought someone with keen Detection Ability along for good reason, he thought.
“Keep your distance and follow me.”
With those words, Woo Ju walked toward the inner room. Almost immediately, a familiar smell hit his nostrils.
The thick stench of blood.
Hehehehe. Hehehehehehe.
At the same time, a low, ominous laugh wormed into his ears.
It was the kind of smell and sound that would unsettle even the bravest soul—yet Woo Ju’s thoughts remained calm.
‘Working hard, aren’t we.’
The intent to block access to the inner room was unmistakable.
Of course, it didn’t work on him.
“If you’re going to do something, do it right.”
Woo Ju raised the iron pipe and swung it hard, sending a message.
Crash!
The door in front of him shattered to pieces.
Yeon Woo, who’d been following behind, gasped.
Shriek—!
A sharp scream tore through the air.
To be continued ▶
How Catastrophe-Class Relics from Urban Legends Become Obsessed
Author
Lee Se-gye
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and duplication are strictly prohibited, and 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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