The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 74

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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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Disaster-Class Relics from Urban Legends Show Their Obsession — Chapter 74
The complete cessation of the abnormal phenomena and the recovery of the artifact.
The former was self-evident, but the latter was naturally something they were hearing for the first time.
At everyone’s confused looks, Seon Dam explained in greater detail.
“To explain this, I need to walk you through the situation more thoroughly.”
Seon Dam went so far as to retrieve a blackboard from somewhere, clearly intending to conduct a full operational briefing.
“The initial mission that Response Team 2 was fully deployed for involved investigating a pseudo-religious cult.”
Seon Dam drew something on the board. It was a symbol of peculiar design.
“This pseudo-religious cult goes by the name Baek Mu Church, originally known as the White Extreme Sect of Eternal Life. It was not an organization the Inspection Bureau had been tracking.”
The Inspection Bureau periodically held briefings on organizations to monitor, but the name Baek Mu Church had never come up before.
“While their doctrine contains some vicious elements, we determined there was no connection to our jurisdiction. Then, a week ago.”
Seon Dam tapped the Baek Mu Church symbol on the board with his marker.
“Abnormal phenomena suddenly occurred within Baek Mu Church.”
“You mean the mass rioting incident, right?”
“Correct.”
Cheong Woo had apparently known already; he posed the question, and Seon Dam nodded in confirmation.
“The believers suddenly went berserk, inflicting severe violence upon one another. They also harmed people in the surrounding area. It was clearly abnormal.”
At those words, Woo Ju imagined dozens of people suddenly going mad and running wild.
Not one or two, but dozens at once—that would certainly be strange.
“The problem didn’t end there. Abnormal phenomena continued to occur for several consecutive days centered on Baek Mu Church. And most importantly.”
Seon Dam affixed a photograph to one section of the board.
“The Cult Leader’s whereabouts remained unaccounted for throughout.”
“The Cult Leader wasn’t an ordinary person?”
This question came from Chae Wol.
Seon Dam answered her calmly.
“An ordinary person, yes. The Inspection Bureau initially suspected he might be concealing abilities, but we soon identified a different cause.”
And then Seon Dam broached the crucial point.
“What we discovered was the existence of an artifact.”
The Cult Leader possessed an artifact.
The entire chain of abnormal phenomena stemmed from that artifact.
“The artifact’s name is Pandora’s Box. A mythological-class artifact.”
Seon Dam named the artifact and glanced briefly at Woo Ju.
Woo Ju scratched his chin at that gaze and spoke.
“Pandora’s Box… Isn’t that the one from Greek and Roman mythology?”
“Correct.”
Seon Dam nodded.
“In mythology, Zeus sent it down to the human world along with Pandora. There’s a famous story about it—they were told never to open it, but the moment curiosity overcame them and they did, all manner of calamities were unleashed upon the world.”
Woo Ju and the others nodded. Most of them seemed to know this already.
Greek and Roman mythology was something most people had encountered through comic books in childhood, and the story of Pandora’s Box was particularly famous among them.
“Different historical accounts do vary somewhat in their telling, but that detail isn’t important, so I’ll skip past it.”
Seon Dam said so and drew a question mark on the board.
“In any case, we’re currently operating under the assumption that the Cult Leader possesses Pandora’s Box.”
“So the previous abnormal phenomena and this current crisis are both caused by that box.”
“Correct.”
Seon Dam answered Baek Hohn’s statement with a confirmation.
“Your priority will be to breach the interior, locate the Cult Leader first and foremost, and recover Pandora’s Box.”
“The Cult Leader’s location is uncertain, then?”
“Yes. Based on the reports from the Response Team 2 personnel who returned, the highest probability is that he’s inside the cult building, but they couldn’t confirm it with certainty.”
That much was understandable.
They’d been unable to complete the operation due to the worsening situation and had withdrawn midway.
In the process, several team members hadn’t made it back.
Seon Dam looked around at everyone and spoke again.
“First, collect all the equipment necessary for this operation, then proceed immediately to the location. There’s no time to waste.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
At those words, everyone rose from their seats.
Even now, problems must be arising continuously in the sealed zone. There was no time to squander.
Pandora’s Box had to be sealed again.
* * *
The road leading to the sealed zone was silent.
Woo Ju and Response Team 1 had parked their vehicle near the cordon line and were walking on foot, with Seon Dam, the vice-captain, leading the way.
“The entrance is just ahead.”
Seon Dam pointed forward as he spoke.
Though it was called an entrance, there was no visible wall or barrier separating one space from another.
In the first place, a “sealed zone” didn’t work by erecting physical barriers.
However, to enter inside the cordon, one had to pass through the designated entrance without exception.
“You’ve arrived.”
Inspection Bureau personnel were stationed at the entrance.
“We’re from Response Team 1.”
Seon Dam approached and had a brief conversation with the staff member guarding the entrance.
Credentials were checked. Any potential problems were verified.
After about ten minutes of verification procedures, the staff member produced something and held it up into thin air.
A low hum filled the space.
Ripples spread outward from that point, and a section of empty space twisted and distorted.
“You may pass through here. To exit, simply find personnel inside and they’ll assist you in the same manner.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
After completing the procedure, they entered the sealed zone one by one.
As they passed through the distorted section, a faint vertigo washed over them and the surroundings transformed in an instant.
Woo Ju furrowed his brow at the dizziness while surveying the area around him.
The street was ordinary.
Traffic lights, shop signs, roadway—a landscape one might see anywhere.
But there was one stark difference.
There were no people.
Everything else remained intact, yet not a soul could be found—a resemblance to the White Room he had experienced once before.
‘They mentioned the exit would be in a different location inside.’
One might think that logically, you’d simply exit from where you entered, but sealed zones don’t work that way.
To leave, one had to find another location entirely.
Since there was always a risk of being separated in the interim, they had all carefully memorized that location.
“Let’s move.”
Once Seon Dam confirmed that everyone had crossed over, he took the lead again.
Their destination was the location of the Baek Mu Church building.
Though the center of the abnormal phenomena was currently at Areum Park, they had decided to investigate that place last.
Given how dangerous it was, and considering that the missing members of Response Team 2 were presumed to be near the cult building.
Seon Dam, Baek Ho, Cheong Woo, Chae Wol, and Yeon Woo—these five, plus Woo Ju, made six in total as they walked through the empty streets.
“This feels strange.”
“The surrounding area is supposedly safe for now, but don’t let your guard down just in case.”
Baek Ho swept his sharp gaze across the surroundings as he spoke.
So far, problems had only manifested in Areum Park and the cult building immediately adjacent to it.
However, according to the Inspection Bureau’s assessment, if left unchecked, the entire sealed zone could undergo Other-worldlization.
“That said, I had no idea Pandora’s Box was such a dangerous artifact. Isn’t that something the Holy See had been safeguarding?”
“That’s correct.”
Seon Dam replied to Cheong Woo’s question.
“It had been stored in the Holy See’s heretical relic vault since antiquity, but about three years ago, there were reports of an incident at that facility.”
“Ah! I think I’ve heard of that.”
Those who, like Woo Ju, belonged to the newer cohort of staff perked up their ears, hearing this for the first time.
“At the time, several items went missing, and it appears Pandora’s Box was among them.”
“Hmm. I wonder how it made its way from there to here.”
They speculated on how Pandora’s Box might have entered Korea, and by what mechanism it was affecting the surrounding area.
Continuing their discussion on these and other matters, they pressed forward.
“There it is.”
After a considerable distance, they arrived at a location where a park and an old-fashioned building stood side by side.
“Hmm. The state of things doesn’t look good at all.”
Cheong Woo narrowed his brow as he spoke.
He was right.
They had been told earlier that the area around the park had undergone complete Other-worldlization, and seeing it in person made the meaning abundantly clear.
The ground, which should have been covered in concrete, was stained a deep crimson, and strange plants they had never seen before were growing in scattered patches.
What caught the eye most were the ‘black shadows’ wandering about.
They looked like black smoke or mist poured into a human-shaped mold and stamped out, and there were quite a number of them.
“The shadows are harmless as long as you don’t make direct contact with them. And regarding those purple flowers, it’s best not to approach them at all.”
Seon Dam adjusted the glasses he had produced from somewhere, speaking as he did.
“Then let’s go.”
They’d already absorbed all the intelligence collected by Response Team 2, so they didn’t linger and headed straight for the cult building.
The cult building stood out distinctly among the grotesquely transformed surroundings, warped in ways all its own.
For one thing, cracks spiderwebbed across the structure everywhere, and through the fissures, something purple gleamed.
What made it even stranger was that it pulsed rhythmically, like a heartbeat.
The entire building felt alive.
‘They said there are Response Team 2 personnel inside, along with cult members who couldn’t escape.’
By rough estimate, about thirty people had remained inside when the emergency first struck.
But extracting them hadn’t been included in the operation’s objectives.
Not out of abandonment—nothing like that.
‘The chances they’re still alive are essentially zero.’
Even the veteran personnel of Response Team 2 had failed to mount an adequate response.
There was no way ordinary civilians could endure at the epicenter of such a catastrophe unscathed.
So they’d decided that if they encountered anyone inside, identification would take priority over extraction.
Even if someone appeared human on the surface, they were more likely to be something grotesquely twisted.
Whoosh.
And so they entered the cult building.
The interior had transformed far more drastically than the exterior. Had they not walked in on foot, they might never have recognized it as a cult building at all.
‘It’s like stepping into a forest.’
Woo Ju observed the surroundings as he walked.
Grass and trees sprouted everywhere, while chairs and furniture sat scattered about.
It felt like witnessing a world hundreds of years after humanity had vanished.
Of course, shadow-beings and plants of bizarre form inhabited the building’s interior.
“This way.”
Seon Dam advanced carefully, weaving between them.
With so many obstacles to avoid, their pace was glacial, yet no one voiced complaint.
‘No sign of people.’
The Main Hall should have been packed when the disaster struck.
Yet finding even a single corpse here proved difficult.
Had there been no one here when it happened? Or had they been taken somewhere else?
Or perhaps they’d transformed into something other than bodies altogether.
Woo Ju entertained these thoughts as he matched pace with those ahead.
After roughly ten minutes traversing the hall, they entered a narrow corridor.
That was when—
“Aaaaaaah—!”
Something suddenly lurched upright from the darkness ahead.
“Please… save me…”
It was a person—covered entirely in scales.
To be continued ▶
Catastrophe-Class Relics from Urban Legends Obsess
Author
Lee Se-gye
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiry Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violators may face criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram awaits 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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