The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 67

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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 in Urban Legends Become Obsessed — Chapter 67
Woo Ju and Hwa Ryeon hurried out of the hotel and drove off in a car.
Though the seaside was directly in front of the hotel, the elevation wasn’t high enough to allow for proper observation.
So they headed to a lighthouse nearby.
Of course, they’d arranged special access to get inside. Exactly how they arranged it, he wasn’t sure.
“Mm.”
Having climbed to the very top of the lighthouse, Hwa Ryeon gazed out at the distant sea and let out a low murmur.
“As I thought…”
“So what is it?”
Since Hwa Ryeon had seemed to know something from the moment she’d called earlier, Woo Ju couldn’t resist pressing her again.
To him, Hwa Ryeon spoke in a hushed voice.
“Hyakki Yagyo. Or what some call the Wild Hunt.”
“Ah! I think I’ve heard of it. That’s when all sorts of bizarre things run rampant, right?”
“That’s right.”
“But… the recent spike in incident frequency—is that connected to it?”
“Not quite. Hyakki Yagyo tends to happen in localized areas and over short periods. And more than anything else—”
Hwa Ryeon spoke with a grim expression.
“It’s a phenomenon that’s almost never occurred in Korea. Fundamentally, this kind of phenomenon is heavily influenced by people’s awareness, and Korea simply doesn’t have many stories of that type.”
In recent years, with the development of the internet and telecommunications, things that once appeared only in certain regions have spread elsewhere, but there are still limits.
In Japan it’s called Hyakki Yagyo, in the West it’s the Wild Hunt, but in Korea the recognition of this phenomenon is quite low, and there’s no particularly similar story in the old tales.
“The last time it happened was probably more than a hundred years ago.”
“I see.”
Woo Ju nodded. Then he asked the most important question.
“So why did it suddenly occur?”
Hwa Ryeon’s answer was simple.
“I don’t know. First, from what I’m seeing, it looks closer to Hyakki Yagyo than Wild Hunt. There are several Japanese-style spirits visible.”
The answer was so straightforward it almost seemed like he’d misheard.
Seeing Woo Ju’s expression, Hwa Ryeon exhaled once and spoke.
“I told you—there’s almost no precedent for this. Something about the timing feels strange, though. There was something major right before this.”
If she meant something that happened just before, it would be the Tatari Kami incident.
A calamity spirit that crossed over from Japan. And the large-scale bizarre phenomenon that occurred immediately after.
There might be no causal connection between the two, but both had Japan as their point of origin.
After all, among all those “crowds,” there were forms that resembled Japanese-style spirits.
“It could be related to that thing.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded at Woo Ju’s words.
“It could be.”
Tatari Kami had had an accomplice. And that accomplice was believed to have helped Tatari Kami cross from Japan to Korea.
Based on various circumstances, calculations suggested that Tatari Kami crossing on its own would have been extremely difficult.
But what if that accomplice wasn’t satisfied with just Tatari Kami?
‘Or it could be venting anger.’
They hadn’t finished what they’d started before being forced to withdraw, so wouldn’t they be furious?
“The probability that it’s simple venting is low.”
But Hwa Ryeon dismissed that possibility.
“To draw in an urban legend of this scale, they would’ve needed quite a lot of time. They must have prepared it in advance.”
“I see.”
True. If someone had the power to pull off something like this on a whim, they wouldn’t have disappeared so pathetically during the Tatari Kami incident.
“Anyway, let’s move.”
Woo Ju, who’d been lost in thought for a moment, snapped back to attention at Hwa Ryeon’s words.
As they made their way back down the lighthouse, Woo Ju asked a question.
“So what exactly is it doing? It doesn’t seem like it’s just going to stand there quietly.”
“It won’t move right away. But it won’t be long. Once the Spirit Gate opens, it’ll move immediately.”
“The Spirit Gate?”
“Yes. There’s still a little time left. The Spirit Gate should open around Ushi no Koku, and that’s when Hyakki Yagyo will begin.”
Ushi no Koku corresponds to between 1 and 3 in the morning.
In the five-period system that divides the night into five segments, Ushi no Koku is called the fourth period, and directionally it signifies the northeast.
This northeastern direction has long been considered inauspicious, as it’s known as the Spirit Gate—the direction through which spirits enter and leave—giving it strong symbolic weight.
“Considering this is a phenomenon that crossed over from Japan, specifically, the procession will likely begin between 2 and 2:30 in the morning.”
“What’s special about that time?”
“In Japan, that time is called Ushi no Mitsu—when even the grasses and trees sleep—and they consider it particularly inauspicious.”
Strange things and spirits often fall outside human common sense, yet conversely, they’re also bound by humanity’s long-held thoughts and awareness.
Tales as ancient and renowned as Hyakki Yagyo fall squarely into the latter category.
The phenomenon is so vast and powerful that it inevitably binds itself to human perception in reverse.
Hwa Ryeon reached the car moments later and settled into the driver’s seat.
“Let’s head to the Busan Branch first.”
“Got it.”
Most of the Busan Branch’s personnel are deployed on vampire suppression operations, though the offices aren’t entirely empty.
Emergency protocols demand that at least two people remain to guard the branch at all times.
Though those two aren’t necessarily field operatives.
Vroom—
Hwa Ryeon drove at a brisk pace.
Woo Ju, noting her anxious demeanor, couldn’t help but press further.
“What exactly happens when Hyakki Yagyo begins?”
He’d heard mention of Hyakki Yagyo before, but the specifics of what actually occurs remained unclear to him.
Since the phenomenon rarely occurred in Korea, the academy had only touched on it briefly during instruction.
Hwa Ryeon fell silent for a moment before answering.
“They’ll all form a procession and march toward another Spirit Gate. Once they reach it, it ends.”
“They won’t simply be walking, I imagine.”
“No. Everyone in their path will be enthralled. They’ll follow along toward the Spirit Gate, or else they’ll be consumed.”
Hwa Ryeon’s eyes drifted toward the window.
“Given where they’re waiting now and the layout of Busan…”
Her brow furrowed slightly.
“They’ll cut straight across the city.”
In other words, everyone in that path would be in danger.
As they spoke, the car had drifted into a sparsely populated district.
Hwa Ryeon drove directly inward and brought the vehicle to a stop in front of a four-story building.
The structure appeared to be an ordinary office at first glance.
The sign bore a generic design one might see anywhere, and faint light seeped from within.
“Let’s go.”
Hwa Ryeon exited first and entered the building, with Woo Ju following close behind.
The building had no elevator, so they climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.
On the fourth floor, there was only the single office visible from outside. Hwa Ryeon checked her phone briefly, then knocked on the door.
Knock-knock, knock. Knock-knock.
After a brief pause, a small opening in the center of the door slid open.
Hwa Ryeon brought her eye to the opening without hesitation.
A flash of blue light erupted outward.
Click—
The door swung open with the sound of metal mechanisms engaging.
“Welcome. Please come in.”
They were greeted by a woman with deep dark circles under her eyes.
She gave a polite bow and turned to lead them inside.
Woo Ju followed Hwa Ryeon through the threshold, taking in the office interior as they went.
For the most part, the office interior matched its external appearance.
It was, in short, an utterly ordinary office space.
“Here. The documents you requested.”
But the materials the Busan Branch employee presented were far from ordinary.
Even at a glance, they formed an impressively thick stack, labeled “Busan Anomaly Records.”
“We conducted a preliminary investigation as soon as we received word, and we’ve identified several potentially useful details.”
Woo Ju was inwardly taken aback.
The call had come less than an hour ago—and she’d already reviewed all this material?
The woman, meanwhile, continued her explanation.
“First, there were two similar incidents over the past few months. At the time, we classified them as common anomalies and took no special measures.”
She unfolded the documents and pointed to one section.
Depicted there was a yokai famous throughout Japan: the Hasshakukijin.
On the next page was a weasel with a tail like a blade. Beyond that lay a creature resembling a tanuki.
“It seems these were resolved rather quickly?”
“Yes. All of them were concluded within a day of first occurrence.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded.
While hardly surprising, it remained impossible to treat each incident as special and investigate them in detail.
Overseas anomalies and folklore crossing into the region were fairly commonplace.
Woo Ju himself had been deployed to such scenes more than once.
Given Busan’s proximity to Japan, it was unlikely they would have considered this anything particularly unusual.
Hwa Ryeon listened to the entire explanation before she spoke.
“So right now the Busan Branch is in a position where pulling out would be awkward?”
“Yes.”
The other person answered firmly.
“We initially deployed expecting three targets, but the actual count is five or more. The operation itself is proceeding smoothly, but if we pull out carelessly, we’ll take severe casualties instead.”
She added that if they withdrew now, the vampires would immediately vanish without a trace, making matters even more troublesome.
Support from the Busan Branch was impossible.
Then they would have to call for reinforcements from other branches.
“We’ve already contacted all the nearby branches. The fastest team should arrive within an hour, and the others will follow in sequence.”
Fortunately, there were other branches besides Busan, so reinforcements would come.
“Then we need to draft a plan for what happens before they arrive.”
“Yes. In fact, I’ve already prepared something regarding that as well.”
After that, the conversation turned to exactly how they would counter the Hyakki Yagyo.
The discussion was complex, but the core was clear.
The moment those creatures in the sea came ashore and set foot in densely populated areas, the chaos and casualties would spiral beyond control.
The best outcome was to prevent them from reaching land entirely; the second-best was to lure them into sparsely populated areas instead.
“For now, we should try both.”
“Yes.”
There was no need to attempt only one. If they tried both and even one succeeded, that would suffice.
Of course, separate from that, they’d also prepared a contingency plan.
“In the worst case, we’ll have to resort to brute force.”
The operatives might sustain heavy losses, but in a worst-case scenario, they would simply beat those creatures down by force.
When that was said, the Busan Branch staff member’s expression wavered slightly, but both Hwa Ryeon and Woo Ju remained composed.
Woo Ju ran his hand across his Iron Pipe as he spoke.
“Wouldn’t we have to try anything, regardless?”
Seeing that, the other person was startled once more.
Somehow, the sight struck them as deeply reassuring.
Continued in the next chapter ▶
Catastrophe-Class Relics from Urban Legends Obsess
Author
Isekaisajang
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiry Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
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※ Pentagram welcomes 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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