The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 75

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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 from Urban Legends: Episode 75
When the figure suddenly appeared, everyone flinched and trembled, but none were truly startled.
They all knew too well that anything could leap out from anywhere at any moment.
Seon Dam, positioned at the front of the group, maintained his distance and spoke without the slightest change of expression.
“Good evening. May I ask your name?”
“Ah, ah, ahhh!”
“Are you able to communicate normally?”
“Help me, please help me……”
“Can you hear what I’m saying?”
“Uhhhhh.”
No coherent response came. He continued to scream or repeat his desperate pleas for help.
Woo Ju, standing third in the formation, observed the man with hollow eyes.
His entire body was covered in something like snake scales, though there were no other visible wounds.
Yet despite this, he writhed in apparent agony, twisting his body this way and that.
‘Is the pain from the bodily transformation itself? Or are those scales the source of the suffering?’
Asking him directly would have been quickest, but he was in no state to provide answers.
“I apologize. At present, immediate intervention is difficult. Please remain here, and we will assist you once this incident is resolved.”
Even so, Seon Dam spoke in a calm voice to the unresponsive man, saying what needed to be said.
Again, no proper answer came.
Seon Dam then raised his hand, pointing at the scale-covered man.
Flash.
The necklace at Seon Dam’s neck briefly gleamed, and the man’s body went rigid.
“Best we avoid direct contact, just to be safe.”
After that, Seon Dam moved forward naturally, skirting around the man as if nothing had happened.
Woo Ju followed in his footsteps, catching a glimpse of the man frozen in place.
For now, nothing diverged from his initial assessment.
There would be no survivors. And if there were, they certainly would not be in a normal state.
‘The others are probably the same.’
Woo Ju swallowed a sigh and continued walking.
As they moved along the corridor, they encountered several people in similar conditions.
Yet similar did not mean identical.
Some, like the man they’d first encountered, were covered entirely in scales, while others had half their bodies transformed into black shadow.
The one that stayed with him most was the woman who wailed for help with only her head remaining.
He could still hear her voice clearly ringing in his ears, pleading to be saved.
Seon Dam’s response each time was simple.
A brief flash of light, and stillness.
There was no capacity to save each of them individually now. To secure any chance of treatment for them, the only answer was to end this anomaly incident swiftly.
How much time had passed this way?
“It’s long.”
In the midst of their advance, Seon Dam spoke as he surveyed the corridor stretching ahead.
“The Otherworldly Transformation seems to have progressed significantly since Response Team 2 investigated earlier.”
This building was not originally so vast. From the outside, it looked like any ordinary structure.
From entrance to exit should have taken no more than five minutes.
Yet nearly thirty minutes had passed since they entered, and the corridor showed no signs of ending.
Space Distortion was one of the most common characteristics of Otherworldly Transformation.
The space itself had twisted, making the interior far more expansive than its true dimensions.
“And it seems conditions worsen the further we go inside.”
Baek Ho looked around as he spoke.
True enough—the corridor’s appearance now bore no resemblance to how it looked at the building’s entrance.
Indescribable plants grew between the walls, and occasionally creatures that seemed to be alive moved through the space.
But what troubled him more was that they still hadn’t identified what was transforming these people.
‘They said prolonged exposure alone adversely affects the mind.’
Looking at the state of these people, it was clear something more was at work.
“There, there.”
At that moment, Yeon U suddenly spoke up.
Yeon U, as always wearing a large mask over his head, raised his hand and pointed ahead.
“Something’s gathered ahead.”
There was nothing in that direction. Or rather, aside from the environment’s twisted transformations, there was nothing remarkable to be seen.
Yet no one ignored Yeon U’s words.
“What do you see?”
“Multiple spirits are gathered in one place, staring down at the ground. And with such ghastly expressions.”
“Let’s get closer and examine it.”
Seon Dam said as much, gathered information from Yeon U, and moved toward where the spirits were congregating.
“Hmm.”
The ground looked no different from anywhere else.
Reddish earth, with black-stemmed plants sprouting through the cracks.
But if Yeon U was right, something had to be hidden here.
“Is this the exact location?”
“That’s right.”
Seon Dam confirmed it with Yeon U, then brought his hand down to the spot. He turned back to Woo Ju and spoke.
“I think we’ll need to dig into this place a bit.”
“Got it.”
Woo Ju immediately picked up the iron pipe and approached the location.
The method of digging earth is simple.
Crash!
One swing of the iron pipe and the ground immediately caved in.
After repeating it several times, a hole soon opened up, revealing what lay hidden beneath.
It was a staircase.
“There’s a staircase in an odd location.”
Just as Seon Dam said, the staircase was indeed in a strange position.
After all, they were in the middle of a corridor.
The space could have twisted due to the otherworldly transformation, or it might have been hidden here from the beginning.
“Let’s head down slowly.”
The spirits wouldn’t have gathered here without reason, so they decided to investigate the underground.
The staircase was narrow, so they had to descend single-file. This time, Woo Ju took the lead, with Seon Dam and Baek Ho following behind.
But before they’d descended far, a foul stench assaulted their nostrils.
‘What kind of smell is this?’
Woo Ju grimaced at the unpleasant odor but continued downward.
The staircase wasn’t deep, and they reached the bottom soon enough.
“What on earth is this place……?”
The underground chamber they’d arrived at had a somewhat startling appearance.
What looked like a prison was occupying the space.
One side was completely barred off, and inside were iron chains and torture implements crammed together.
Most striking of all was the fact that talismans were plastered all over the inside.
“Hmm. The Cult Leader seems to have questionable tastes.”
Baek Ho looked around the underground chamber as he spoke.
Considering this was the Cult’s building, the Cult Leader had obviously been involved in creating this space.
The probability that he’d directly ordered its construction was extremely high.
“Th-there are quite a lot of spirits here. They all look like they’re suffering or have wronged expressions on their faces.”
Yeon U spoke in a slightly trembling voice.
Though Woo Ju wasn’t wearing the mask right now, he could certainly feel the oppressive energy permeating the entire space.
“So the bastard didn’t just have bad luck—he had rotten luck.”
No one disagreed with Baek Ho’s assessment.
The purpose of a place like this was obvious, regardless of whether it matched the description of the spirits Yeon U had mentioned.
“But this doesn’t seem to have any connection to the current situation, does it?”
“Right. Aside from the location itself, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy.”
The location was unpleasant enough, but there didn’t seem to be anything of value here.
It appeared to have no connection to the anomaly incident caused by Pandora’s Box.
But Yeon U seemed to think differently.
“I think it started here.”
“Pardon?”
“Pandora’s Box. I think it was opened right here.”
As Yeon U spoke, she pointed to a location. Like before, it was empty space with nothing visible.
“The spirits are telling me. That the box was opened right there.”
“Hmm.”
At that, Seon Dam adjusted his glasses and examined the spot carefully.
“There is some kind of trace left behind……. I should investigate it.”
Seon Dam immediately rummaged through his bag and laid out several items.
They were items whose purpose was hard to guess, but once he arranged them in a specific pattern and began chanting an incantation, light burst forth from that spot.
Flash!
That light soon took on a shape.
It was the form of a middle-aged man, rather corpulent.
He gazed into empty air, muttering something, then made a gesture as if receiving an object.
It was a box—square and solid.
The man stared down at the box with a mixture of curiosity and greed, then carefully lifted the lid.
In that instant—
Crackle, crack!
The form twisted violently, and the light burst apart with a dull pop, vanishing into nothing.
Seon Dam, who stood directly before it, frowned slightly. “As I suspected. The box was opened here. That man appears to be the Cult Leader. And—”
Seon Dam pointed to a spot just in front of where the Cult Leader’s form had manifested.
“Someone else interfered. It’s not entirely clear, but it seems they handed him the box and urged him to open it.”
“True enough. The box wouldn’t have rolled in on its own.”
Woo Ju’s eyes shifted at that remark.
In his experience, artifacts had a peculiar habit of finding their way into places they shouldn’t be.
Not that he voiced such thoughts aloud.
Still, discovering that the box had been opened here was a significant find.
“Using this trace, I believe we can track the box’s precise location.”
With that residue as a guide, they could now pursue the artifact directly.
Seon Dam immediately withdrew additional items and began preparing for the Tracking ritual.
Some five minutes later—
A brilliant azure light rose into the air.
It resembled a firefly, pale and luminous.
The light hovered for a moment, then began drifting slowly upward toward the stairs.
“That will lead us to the Pandora’s Box. Let’s go.”
“Right.”
Unlike Hwa Ryeon’s Tracking method, the Firefly Guide’s pace was leisurely, allowing them to follow at ease.
They retraced the staircase they’d descended and advanced steadily behind the light.
Various obstacles arose along the way, but nothing they couldn’t overcome. At last, they reached the end of the Corridor.
“Here again.”
The hall they entered resembled the one they’d first breached—structurally identical, in fact.
But its interior was far more twisted than before, so warped that had they not examined it carefully upon entering, they might not have recognized it as the same space.
Screams filled the air—”Aaaaaa—”
“Help me, help me, kill me, help me, help me, help me.”
“Mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother—”
But worse than the distorted architecture were the people scattered throughout the hall.
They had encountered many in advanced stages of Otherworldly Transformation as they climbed, yet these specimens were on another level entirely.
Save for their ability to produce human speech, they bore almost no resemblance to their original forms—twisted beyond recognition.
Had they witnessed this horror without context, they would have dismissed these creatures as monsters imitating human sounds.
And it was among these writhing forms that they discovered something far grimmer.
“There. Response Team 2 members.”
Among the twisted throng were operatives from Cheong U’s unit.
Cheong U’s face darkened as he pointed to one figure.
There stood a man clad in vestments a priest might wear.
“We believe that’s Jung In Hwan, who transferred to Response Team 2 from the Daejeon Branch not long ago.”
Cheong U used the word “believe” because even he was barely recognizable beneath the deformation.
Likely it was the vestments, not the face, that had allowed Cheong U to make the identification.
All of them fell silent.
Boom!
Then the ground trembled.
They turned toward the source of the sound.
Thud, thud, thud—!
Something massive walked into the hall.
It was an enormous mass of flesh—and the Firefly Guide that had led them here drifted toward it without hesitation, then vanished without a trace.
Seon Dam observed this and spoke. “That must be the Cult Leader.”
He gestured toward the grotesque form.

Continued in the next episode ▶
Urban Legends and Catastrophe-Class Relics Obsessed
Author
Lee Se-gye
Publisher
Kim Seok Hwan, Choi Se Ra
Publishing House
Gerae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reprinting and reproduction are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes your valuable 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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