The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 79

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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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Urban Legends and Catastrophe-Class Relics Obsess — Episode 79
The absence of Hwa Ryeon, the team leader, was beginning to weigh more heavily than expected.
Though she wasn’t particularly talkative by nature, the weeks without seeing her had made that void unmistakably felt.
But now that Hwa Ryeon had returned, the atmosphere in the office had visibly brightened.
“Everyone’s faces look refreshed—seems like the long break did you all good.”
Hwa Ryeon spoke with a smile, her back leaning against the chair.
And indeed, since the previous incident had concluded, they’d been in a holding pattern at the office. They’d even been granted several days of leave.
Of course, the brightness in their faces was mostly due to the team leader’s return.
“Still, the mood seemed to have sagged lately. Given what happened, I suppose that’s understandable.”
Hwa Ryeon’s faint smile faded as she continued.
“But don’t let it drag you down too far.”
She glanced around at the others as she spoke.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t care. That would be impossible anyway. What matters is learning to accept things properly and let them go appropriately.”
Everyone listened to her words with solemn attention.
Hwa Ryeon rarely brought up such topics.
Returning after an absence, she’d likely felt the weight of the heavy atmosphere that much more keenly.
“That’s how you stay able to work in a place like this. That’s simply what this place is.”
With that, Hwa Ryeon placed a Long Pipe between her lips.
Baek Ho reacted instinctively to the sight.
“Are you carrying it with you all the time now?”
The Long Pipe was a useful and versatile artifact, but one that demanded a considerable price in exchange.
In many respects, it could be compared to the Necronomicon.
The Necronomicon, too, could be applied in multiple ways while exacting a heavy toll.
Of course, Woo Ju had never paid quite such a steep price.
Even the insect that had clung to his shoulder until recently had taken its fill of meals for ten days before departing.
But that was an exceptionally rare case.
It wasn’t that the Necronomicon was unusual.
It was that Woo Ju was unusual.
The Necronomicon, which normally wouldn’t care what its contractor desired, was now seeking out only Incantations that were precisely needed while demanding relatively modest prices in return.
If the previous owners had witnessed this, they would have wept bitter tears of grievance.
“Things have been going rather poorly lately, so I figure I should always be prepared to use it, even if I don’t actually resort to it at any given moment.”
That appeared to be the reason she’d switched from an unlit cigarette to the Long Pipe.
Baek Ho and Chung Woo nodded heavily in agreement.
They would naturally be well aware of its side effects.
“All right, let’s drop that subject.”
Hwa Ryeon cut off the conversation thread and shifted to another topic.
“First things first—Woo Ju, is Pandora’s Box being kept safe?”
“Yes, it’s right here.”
Woo Ju raised one arm to display it.
There, wrapped around his wrist, was a bracelet of exceptionally refined design.
Greek letters and indecipherable patterns were densely inscribed across its surface, and the shapes shifted subtly depending on how the light caught them.
At the center of the bracelet sat a small, flat hexagonal ornament.
It resembled the form of a lidded box, and when one looked closely, something seemed to shimmer within it as if the interior were filled with contents.
“Hmm. No difficulties in maintaining it?”
“No, actually the fit is quite comfortable—sometimes I forget I’m even wearing it.”
“No, I didn’t mean the comfort aspect.”
Hwa Ryeon’s expression flickered momentarily in surprise before she asked again.
“I meant the other side of things.”
Pandora’s Box was essentially the root cause of the entire incident.
When the cult leader had opened the box, the calamities sealed within had poured out into the world and set everything in motion.
So naturally, carrying such a thing on one’s person would be cause for worry.
“Ah, that side… I don’t feel anything unusual from it.”
But Woo Ju seemed unconcerned about it.
Not out of carelessness or recklessness, but because he’d been given a thorough explanation beforehand.
“According to the manufacturing team, the box itself poses no inherent danger. Its primary function is Sealing, after all.”
That was correct.
Pandora’s Box was not an artifact designed to unleash calamities upon the world.
Its true purpose was to seal terrible calamities safely within.
Hadn’t this latest incident been concluded precisely by re-sealing the calamity’s core back into Pandora’s Box?
“Besides, we’ve already extracted everything that could be transferred and re-sealed separately.”
So now Pandora’s Box had considerable empty space inside it.
“Thank goodness for that.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded as she listened to Woo Ju’s explanation.
And truth be told, if you set aside a few complications, Pandora’s Box was quite a remarkable artifact.
“Actually, I think it could end up being surprisingly useful.”
“Is that so?”
Since only Chung Woo, who had heard the detailed description alongside them, had that knowledge of the artifact, Woo Ju offered a more thorough explanation.
“The core function of this box is Sealing. If you weaken something sufficiently beforehand, you can seal just about anything.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Thinking back to that scene at the time…….”
“It seems distant from the original myth, yet when you consider its essential properties, there’s an undeniable connection.”
Baek Ho nodded, recalling the previous scene, while Chung Woo added his voice in a measured tone.
In the original myth, Pandora’s Box contained multiple calamities within it.
So when Pandora ignored the warning and opened it, those calamities spread into the human world.
Yet there was one exception—hope alone remained sealed inside the box.
“The crucial point here is that the box contained calamities within it.”
“Looking at it that way, you could say Pandora’s Box itself represents hope—an artifact capable of sealing countless calamities.”
“Well, we can’t really know whether the mythology came first or the artifact did, in truth.”
Everyone nodded at Woo Ju’s words.
The most common misconception people have when they think of artifacts related to “mythology” is that the artifact is literally the same object that appeared in the original myth.
But that’s not always the case.
‘More often than not, the mythology comes first, and the artifact follows after.’
For example, there was a legend that had been passed down for ages about a millstone that endlessly produces salt, and later an actual object with similar properties appeared.
Investigation through multiple channels revealed that the artifact had been created after the legend spread.
‘In that sense, weird entities are similar too.’
Weird entities are divided into those that existed from ancient times and those that gained life from urban legends circulating among people.
Artifacts work much the same way.
“All right. Let’s wrap up that discussion there then.”
Hwa Ryeon felt she had heard enough explanation about Pandora’s Box and finally moved to the main topic.
“There’s some new information that came up during today’s meeting. I’ll share that first.”
Hwa Ryeon pulled documents from her bag and continued speaking as she reviewed them.
“In the traces left from the Tatarikami incident and the traces from the Baekmukyou incident, there are overlapping patterns.”
“Overlapping patterns, you say?”
Woo Ju reacted most seriously to that statement.
Woo Ju had been present at both scenes. And above all—hadn’t he and Hwa Ryeon dealt with “him” directly?
“That’s right.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded as if she understood Woo Ju’s reaction and continued speaking.
“But this is the conclusion after verification through multiple channels. There are definitely matching patterns in the traces from both scenes.”
“Could it be that he’s still alive?”
At the follow-up question, Hwa Ryeon shook her head.
“No. The probability of that is low.”
“Then……?”
“They could have been taught by the same person. Belonged to the same organization. Or perhaps there’s a master-and-subordinate relationship.”
Only after hearing that did Woo Ju’s expression show understanding.
The idea that he had come back to life and caused this situation was impossible by any measure.
Hadn’t he lost his physical body and his spirit was captured in that place?
Hwa Ryeon even brought that point up at that moment.
“We’re conducting additional interrogation of the spirit right now, so we should be able to get information soon.”
“Roger.”
“Understood.”
“So what do we do now?”
The last question came from Chung Woo.
Hwa Ryeon spoke while looking at Chung Woo.
“There shouldn’t be any team-level operations for the moment. First, Chung Woo, you’ll conduct additional investigation with the investigation team regarding this matter.”
As though she had already given thought to task allocation beforehand, Hwa Ryeon smoothly issued assignments to her team members one by one.
And soon it was Woo Ju’s turn.
“Woo Ju. You’re going to Japan.”
“……What?”
Woo Ju paused and then asked.
“Japan? Me?”
“Yes. To be precise, you and me. The two of us together.”
Woo Ju blinked.
* * *
The plane descended slowly toward the tarmac and touched down with a heavy thud.
Woo Ju gazed out the window with an odd expression.
The aircraft on the runway gradually reduced its speed.
After watching it for some time, Woo Ju turned to look at the seat beside him just as the plane came to a stop.
“Never thought I’d actually fly business class.”
“Really? Once you start going on business trips, you’ll always be in business class or higher. Honestly, if the schedule hadn’t been so tight this time, I would’ve booked first class for you.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. We’re going to help them out, after all.”
As he spoke, the plane came to a complete stop.
Soon the in-flight announcement came through, and the two of them rose from their seats and headed toward the exit.
After going through customs and stepping outside, they found people waiting for them.
“Welcome to Osaka.”
It was Shinichi who greeted them.
A Japanese Inspection Bureau employee who had conducted operations with them during the Tatarikami incident before.
‘Middle-aged swordsman….’
Woo Ju glanced toward Shinichi’s back. Sure enough, there was the familiar elongated box strapped there.
How much he’d regretted not getting to see it when he’d heard that Shinichi used a sword as his main weapon!
‘I should ask him to show me it when we have time.’
While thinking that to himself, Shinichi smiled and spoke.
“I’ve had a car prepared up front. Shall we go?”
“Yes.”
“Yep!”
And so Hwa Ryeon and Woo Ju followed Shinichi out of the airport.
There, just as Shinichi had said, a rather luxurious car was waiting.
Shinichi took the driver’s seat himself and told them to make themselves comfortable in the back.
“Shall I take you to your lodging first?”
“No. I’d like to go and check things out first.”
“Understood. Then let’s head straight to the branch office.”
After saying that, Shinichi stepped on the accelerator and pulled out of the airport.
“There’s quite a distance between the airport and the branch, so it’ll probably take about an hour.”
“Yes.”
The Kansai Airport in Osaka is fairly far from the city center.
Thanks to that, Woo Ju could gaze out the window and leisurely take in the scenery.
He’d been to Japan before.
But he’d never come on business until now. After all, the Inspection Bureau had been his first job.
‘It feels strange.’
Though he’d traveled to many places while working for the Inspection Bureau, he’d never imagined he’d end up crossing over to Japan like this.
It was because there weren’t many cases where support came from abroad, given that the Inspection Bureau had branch offices in other countries as well.
“Would you like me to give you a brief explanation of this situation on the way?”
Shinichi asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.
Hwa Ryeon glanced at Woo Ju before nodding.
“Yes.”
“I heard that similar traces to those from the Tatarikami incident were discovered in the recent Baekmukyou incident in Korea.”
Shinichi pushed up his thin-framed glasses as he spoke.
“Identical traces have been found in the Shuutendoji incident that occurred here.”
To be continued ▶
Urban legends. Catastrophe-Class Relics. Obsession.
Author
Isekaishacho
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Inquiry Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction and duplication are prohibited. Violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram awaits your precious manuscript.

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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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