The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 8

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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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Calamity-Class Relics from Urban Legends — Episode 8
After gathering my things, I headed downstairs.
A luxury sedan was waiting there.
As I hesitated in front of it, the window slid down with a soft whine, and a familiar face appeared.
It was Hwa Ryeon.
“You came down quickly. Get in the passenger seat.”
“Oh, yes.”
Woo Ju nodded and walked around to the passenger side.
“You’ve got your seatbelt on, right? I’m heading out.”
“Yeah.”
The car pulled smoothly into motion. Woo Ju glanced at the back seat, then spoke.
“That person from last time…”
“Oh, Cheong U? He’s got the day off. He clocked out this morning.”
“I see.”
“The hours around here tend to be irregular, unfortunately. We can’t always stick to set shift times.”
Woo Ju nodded.
He’d already heard as much. Given the nature of the Surveillance Bureau he was about to join, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
After all, the work they handled was far from the realm of everyday life.
Besides, things like that usually showed up in the evening hours.
With that thought, Woo Ju turned to Hwa Ryeon.
“Which station are we investigating this time?”
“It’s called a Ghost Station. Or an Abandoned Station.”
Hwa Ryeon fell silent for a moment, then pulled out a cigarette and placed it between her lips without lighting it. She simply held it there.
Feeling Woo Ju’s gaze, Hwa Ryeon’s mouth curved upward.
“It’s just a habit. I don’t actually light them, so don’t worry about it.”
“Oh, that’s fine.”
Woo Ju didn’t smoke, but it wasn’t something he minded, so he spoke plainly and continued.
“Now that I think about it, you don’t need to be so formal with me. You’re the team leader, after all.”
“Is that so?”
Hwa Ryeon smiled as if she’d been waiting for this, and relaxed her tone.
Though in truth, regardless of rank, Hwa Ryeon had something about her that was difficult to approach casually.
It wasn’t that she seemed older—if anything, her appearance showed little difference from his own.
It was more a matter of atmosphere.
Hwa Ryeon carried an aura that could only be felt from someone who had seen and weathered countless trials.
She took the cigarette between her left fingers and spoke.
“Do you know much about urban legends—the folklore surrounding the bizarre?”
“Well, I’ve seen a few interesting ones online, I suppose.”
“That’s typical. Our Surveillance Bureau’s Abnormal Phenomena Response Team deals with a very wide range of supernatural phenomena.”
Hwa Ryeon kept her eyes on the road as she continued.
“Ghosts, yokai, bizarre entities, urban legends—all manner of beings and phenomena. But there’s one thing they all have in common.”
“A common thread?”
“Yes. These things take forms that are quite familiar to humans.”
Hwa Ryeon’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“For instance, say you encounter some creature. Usually, it’s not something you’re completely unfamiliar with. You can find information about it somewhere—in myths, legends, folklore, oral traditions.”
“Does that mean such beings have existed since ancient times?”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“Some of these things are created by borrowing the shape of stories that humans have invented. That sort of thing.”
Woo Ju’s expression grew thoughtful.
“So you’re saying that originally, no such being existed, but as humans spread stories about them, they came into being?”
“Right. Though not in every case, of course. Some have clear records dating back nearly a thousand years.”
“Huh.”
It was a fascinating subject.
Supernatural beings that had existed since the distant past, and others that had recently gained existence through the strength of human storytelling.
It was something he’d never considered before.
Hwa Ryeon continued with a thin smile.
“The reason I brought this up now is that this case is likely one of the latter.”
“Something that came into being recently, then.”
“More precisely, that’s our current theory. Especially since it’s not one of our native urban legends.”
“One of ours?”
“Right. You know about Kisaragi Station?”
Kisaragi Station.
I thought hard, but nothing came to mind.
“It’s a Japanese urban legend that isn’t very well-known in Korea. Simply put, it’s about something that happened to a person traveling by train in the early morning hours.”
Hwa Ryeon spoke while looking ahead, her gaze hollow and distant.
“So this person was riding the train home. They fell asleep for a moment, and when they woke up, everyone around them was asleep.”
Listening to her voice, I found myself remembering nights during school trips when we’d gather and tell ghost stories.
Though the situation was entirely different now.
“Then, not long after, the train stopped. The person thought they should get off, so they hurried out—only to realize they’d exited at a place called Kisaragi Station.”
“Kisaragi Station wouldn’t be a real station, then.”
“Exactly. And some say Kisaragi itself is a Japanese word meaning ghost—the character for ghost, actually.”
“So what happened after that?”
“After that, there isn’t much really. Kisaragi Station is unmanned—not a soul around. No public phones. No taxis. Just mountains and fields stretching out.”
You might ask why the person didn’t just get back on the train they came in on, but according to the account, they couldn’t.
They were too terrified. They couldn’t go back.
So they walked along the tracks, kept walking, desperate to find their way home.
“After that, they supposedly reached some station and got a ride from someone’s car. Then the car headed into the mountains, and either they jumped out or something else happened—the details are unclear. The story just cuts off. And the person who wrote it all vanished without a trace.”
“The ending’s rather ambiguous, isn’t it?”
“Right. And besides, there are plenty of holes in the story, so the Japanese side eventually concluded someone had made the whole thing up.”
Hwa Ryeon stopped there and put a cigarette back between her lips.
In the meantime, the car had merged onto the main road. Even at this early hour, traffic was fairly heavy.
“But remember what I said earlier? About stories sometimes gaining power?”
“You did mention that.”
“This is the same. After that story spread, emergency calls started flooding in from people claiming to be trapped at Kisaragi Station.”
Hwa Ryeon’s mouth twisted slightly.
“Most of them were prank calls, but a tiny fraction—their GPS locations pointed to places that shouldn’t exist. Locations that had no business being on any map. Interesting, right?”
Before that post went up, Hwa Ryeon said, there had never been a single call like that.
“Well, anyway, what’s happening in Japan isn’t really our concern. They’ll handle their own business.”
“You said the place we’re investigating today is a ghost station.”
“Yeah.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded.
“Lately, we’ve been getting calls on our end. People claiming they’re trapped at a place called Sakyeong Station.”
“Is that where we’re headed?”
“That’s right. We should be arriving soon.”
At her words, Woo Ju glanced out the window. Ahead, a single station came into view.
Naturally enough, it wasn’t the Sakyeong Station she’d mentioned—just an ordinary subway station.
“We’ll be taking the subway from here.”
Hwa Ryeon expertly guided the car into a parking lot nearby. Once she’d parked and gotten out, she retrieved a long bag from the trunk.
“Let’s go.”
“All right.”
Woo Ju walked alongside Hwa Ryeon.
On the way down to the subway, he caught the occasional stare from passersby.
It was hardly surprising.
One of them wore a formal suit and carried a long bag; the other wore jeans and a t-shirt while carrying an identical long bag.
It made for a combination that looked decidedly out of place.
But neither Hwa Ryeon nor Woo Ju paid the glances much attention.
“For now, the way in is simple. If you take the subway and keep traveling between eleven in the morning and one in the afternoon, you’ll somehow arrive there before you know it.”
“And if nothing happens?”
“Then today’s a washout. Don’t worry. I’ll pay you properly regardless.”
The two exchanged words as they swiped their cards and passed through the gates. A subway arrived moments later.
They boarded and sat down side by side in a reasonably empty spot.
Woo Ju suddenly had a question and opened his mouth.
“But why Sakyeong Station?”
“The name, you mean? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the Fourth Watch from the Five Watches system. The Fourth Watch—the Chuk Hour, I’d say.”
“The Chuk Hour?”
“Right. In the Twelve Earthly Branches, Chuk is the second character, and it represents the northeast or north-northeast direction. And since ancient times, the northeast has been thought of as the Gate of Ghosts—the direction where spirits come and go.”
At her words, Woo Ju recalled the Gate of Ghosts he’d seen at the Abandoned School. That thing, so unsettlingly dark, emanating such an ill and ominous presence.
“Or it could be the character for death—Sa—paired with the character for boundary or realm—Gyeong. Death Boundary Station.”
“The brink of death. Or the boundary or realm of death. Something like that.”
“Yeah. It’s a place entangled with urban legends, so.”
Whether it meant the Chuk Hour, the Fourth Watch, or the Death Boundary where the dying enter—the name carried the same ill omen either way.
Woo Ju listened to this much, then fell silent in thought before speaking.
“But you called me because there’s something you need me to do, isn’t there?”
Hwa Ryeon let out a soft laugh at the question. “More like insurance,” she said.
“Insurance?”
“Insurance.”
“Right. If things get dangerous, we destroy everything and escape, if we have to.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Honestly, I’d be more surprised if it wasn’t. Have some confidence. You already destroyed the Gate of Ghosts—the thing the entire development team poured everything into.”
Woo Ju’s expression turned uncertain—he didn’t know whether to laugh or stay serious.
Hwa Ryeon caught that look, let out a low chuckle, and nudged his arm with her elbow.
“That’s a compliment. A real one. To be honest, I thought that thing looked too dangerous anyway, so I was hoping we’d stop using it. When I heard you’d destroyed it, I was so relieved.”
“Thank you, then.”
“Don’t thank me. Anyway, talking with you now, you seem much calmer than I expected. Last time you seemed a bit more on edge.”
“Oh, that. It’s strange—whenever I’m holding that iron pipe, it’s different.”
“Hmm. You mean like courage welling up, or fear disappearing?”
“Exactly that feeling.”
“That’s precisely the trait we need in the Response Team.”
It did seem that way.
If Woo Ju hadn’t had the iron pipe at the Abandoned School, he probably wouldn’t have been able to take the exam so composedly.
“By the way, what happened to that Chae Wol person who took the exam with us?”
“Why? Interested?”
“Well, we took the exam together, so.”
“Hmm. I’m not sure about that one. They’d probably fit the Response Team too. They’re probably deciding which team to assign them to upstairs.”
Woo Ju nodded.
Since he wasn’t that curious anyway, he didn’t press further.
After a few more exchanges like that.
“I’m going to rest a bit. You get some sleep too. Most people usually sleep and wake up just as we’re arriving.”
“Yes.”
Hwa Ryeon said that and immediately closed her eyes.
Woo Ju looked out the window for a moment, then pulled his bag closer and held it. He quietly checked inside the bag.
‘The iron pipe is here.’
His lifeline—the iron pipe—sat quietly inside the bag.
‘The Necronomicon too….’
And beside it lay the Necronomicon.
‘…Why is this here?’
He didn’t remember putting it in the bag. After pondering for a moment, Woo Ju simply closed the bag again.
Right. This thing, like the iron pipe, clearly wasn’t an ordinary object.
‘So if I use this and smash something, it’ll work?’
At least the weight seemed unusually substantial, so it might be possible.
Woo Ju entertained the thought, then shook his head and clutched the bag. For now, he needed to sleep. So he closed his eyes.
Though he wondered if he’d actually fall asleep so soon after waking up…
…….
Screech—
Suddenly a harsh static-like sound pierced his ear. Then a flat, toneless voice echoed through the car.
-Next stop, Sakyeong Station. Sakyeong Station.
At that voice, Woo Ju’s eyes snapped open. Only then did he realize he’d fallen asleep.
“Mm.”
Just then, Hwa Ryeon also seemed to wake, her eyes still heavy with sleep as she looked around. Her gaze met Woo Ju’s.
“It’s dark.”
Only after hearing her abrupt comment did Woo Ju notice how dim the subway car had become.
At that, he turned his head to the side and frowned.
“…?”
The window was dark.
It wasn’t just because they were passing through a dark tunnel.
Outside, they were passing through what looked like dark, empty rice fields.
“Why would a subway…pass through rice fields.”
“Keep your voice down. We’re the only ones awake.”
At those words, Woo Ju looked around again.
Just as Hwa Ryeon said, he realized everyone around them was asleep.
‘But was the person in front of me… a man?’
As Woo Ju turned over that question, the announcement played again.
—This station is Sakyeong Station. Passengers exiting the train… please… alight…
The announcement, which had been clear at first, grew increasingly garbled toward the end until it became nearly unintelligible.
Click.
Screeeeeech—
And soon the subway came to a halt.
Or should he call it a train now?
“Let’s go.”
Hwa Ryeon spoke in an even tone and rose from her seat.
Woo Ju gripped his bag firmly and followed her off.
They passed through the doors and descended.
[Sakyeong Station]
A sign reading “Sakyeong Station” greeted them.
Turning his head to the side, he saw a station building that appeared long abandoned.
Naturally enough, the station was dark and showed no signs of human presence.
“You know something?”
“Pardon?”
In the eerie atmosphere, Hwa Ryeon walked slowly toward the sign and spoke.
“Usually, when we carry out missions, we work in pairs. Generally, I tend to partner with the one who does the thinking.”
“Because you handle the physical side, Team Lead?”
“Right.”
Hwa Ryeon turned slightly and smiled at Woo Ju, her eyes glinting with an odd light.
“But after hearing about your performance, I suddenly had a thought.”
“What kind of thought?”
“Maybe the reason one needs to think is because strength is lacking. In other words, if strength is weak, the mind must work harder.”
“Isn’t it usually the opposite?”
He’d heard many times that if the mind is poor, the body must suffer. But he’d never really heard the reverse.
At Woo Ju’s words, Hwa Ryeon’s smile deepened as she continued.
“Well, why not try to verify it in this opportunity?”
With that, Hwa Ryeon opened the bag she’d brought.
Unlike last time, it contained not black branches but what looked like a dark sword.
Hwa Ryeon drew it out and, without hesitation, approached the sign and swung the dark sword.
Crash—!
The sign crumpled under that single blow. Hwa Ryeon wore a satisfied expression as she continued.
“That’s what we call Physical Destruction. We smash the station and see what reacts. So, what do you think?”
Woo Ju belatedly grasped the nature of the light dancing in Hwa Ryeon’s eyes. It was what people commonly called madness.
And then.
Whoooosh—
Suddenly, something took shape from the far end of the station.
The silhouettes were twisted in a way that could hardly be called human, and there appeared to be dozens of them.
Pound-pound-pound—!
And the moment he confirmed their presence.
They began charging toward him at full speed.
Seeing that, Woo Ju no longer hesitated and drew the iron pipe from his bag. And when they finally reached him—
Crash—!
He answered by shattering the skull of the nearest one in a single blow.
“Let’s give it a shot, why not.”
Honestly, it looked kind of fun.
Continued in the next episode ▶
Catastrophe-Grade Relics from Urban Legends Cling to Me
Author
Yi Se-gye-sa-jang
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Contact Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited, and violations may result in criminal and civil legal 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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