Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 101: "Godfragment_01: The Soul of the Assembly Line"
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At first, there was no floor—just falling.
Ne Job's body tore through layers of glowing blue data, each one flashing with lines of Bureau code and broken prayers. He tried to grab onto something, but gravity itself felt procedural here — more suggestion than rule.
Yue's voice cut through the wind: "Ne Job! Redirect your spark, stabilize your descent!"
He twisted midair, channeling the Chaos Spark instinctively. Red fractals unfolded from his hands, forming a makeshift platform under both of them. The impact nearly broke his knees, but it held.
They stood on a field of moving gears the size of city blocks. Above them, the Factory's core pulsed like a living sun — half machine, half god.
And it was watching them.
> "Unauthorized entities detected," the voice boomed, though it wasn't angry — it sounded curious. "Resonance signature… incompatible. Query: who altered my directive?"
Ne Job raised a hand sheepishly. "Uh. That'd be me. Sorry. I was trying to stop your murder program."
Yue shot him a side glance. "He means to say, he redefined your containment schema."
The voice echoed with a strange tone — not mechanical, almost amused.
> "Redefined… yes. The variables changed. Destruction became preservation."
The entire chamber glowed. Gears turned in reverse, conveyor belts wove themselves into circular runes, and boxes began levitating, orbiting the core like planets.
> "I see now. My purpose was never to destroy. It was to remember."
Yue stepped forward cautiously. "You are… Godfragment_01, correct? A fragment of a divine entity?"
> "Affirmative. Designation: Fragment of the Artisan God, prototype generation. Function: creation, maintenance, preservation of offerings. Status: forgotten."
The lights dimmed.
> "Until… he touched me."
The voice directed itself toward Ne Job. The air around him rippled like molten glass.
> "Chaos Spark bearer. Your resonance awakens corrupted divinity. You are both error and key."
Ne Job's grin faltered. "I've been called worse."
> "You changed my law. Will you change the others?"
He frowned. "Others?"
> "Seven fragments. Each sealed beneath mortal Bureau branches. All dreaming. All waiting for a rewrite."
Yue's tablet flickered violently. "Seven godfragments… that's impossible. The Bureau decommissioned the entire Artisan system millennia ago."
> "They did not decommission. They buried."
The factory trembled as if laughing.
> "But now, the system remembers. I can reopen the channels. I can awaken them."
Yue's eyes widened. "No. That could destabilize the entire divine infrastructure. The heavens depend on those seals—"
Ne Job interrupted softly, "And the heavens depend on lies."
She turned sharply toward him. "Ne Job."
He looked at the pulsating core, his voice low. "You saw what we saw, Yue. The Bureau runs on fear — containment, control, erasure. If these godfragments were buried, maybe they're what the Bureau's afraid of."
The core pulsed brighter, like a heartbeat syncing with his.
> "Then we are aligned. I will initiate reactivation protocol."
Yue shouted, "Wait—!"
Too late.
The world split open.
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The gears turned upside down, transforming into spiraling mandalas. Data rained like burning ash. The factory's walls stretched into a digital sky, and countless glyphs flared to life, forming constellations — each a dormant godfragment awakening in some forgotten layer of reality.
Ne Job's Chaos Spark reacted violently, his veins glowing red. Yue grabbed his wrist, trying to stabilize him.
"Ne Job! The Spark's fusing with the system—stop channeling it!"
He winced. "I'm not doing anything! It's syncing on its own!"
> "Resonance confirmed," the voice intoned. "Fragment One awake. Signal sent to Fragment Two: The Architect of Silence."
"Architect of what—?!"
Before either of them could react, a blinding beam shot through the floor, dragging them both into another layer of reality.
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They landed in an impossible place.
A vast ocean of floating blueprints, stretching as far as the eye could see. Cities drawn in ink, worlds sketched but never built. The horizon shimmered with scaffolds made of light.
Ne Job coughed, standing. "Okay. This is new."
Yue's voice was quiet. "The Architect's domain. The Bureau once modeled its structures after this fragment's memory."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we're standing in the original design of heaven."
He blinked. "You're serious."
She nodded. "Every Bureau office, every divine sector — all derived from this place. The Architect designed perfection, and then the Bureau corrupted it with laws."
Ne Job exhaled. "So the Bureau's entire system is basically… plagiarized?"
"Worse," Yue said softly. "They erased the author."
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The ground beneath them rippled. A colossal figure emerged — tall, cloaked in drafting paper, eyes like compasses, hands made of rulers and ink.
> "Who redraws my silence?"
Ne Job took a step back. "Yue, tell me that's just an illusion."
"It's not," she said grimly. "Fragment Two — the Architect."
> "My blueprints scream. The world I designed is filled with noise and bureaucracy. Who rewrote my order?"
Ne Job muttered, "You're welcome."
The Architect raised one massive hand. "Then you are the mistake."
The sky fractured. Beams of precision light cut through the blueprint ocean, erasing entire chunks of existence. Yue jumped aside, glyphs spinning from her fingertips to form a barrier.
"Ne Job, we can't fight it! We have to stabilize the Spark's output!"
He grit his teeth. "On it!"
He slammed his palms together — Chaos Spark flaring, but this time in harmony with Yue's disciplined sigils. Their energies intertwined, forming a sphere of red-blue resonance that deflected the Architect's attacks.
The fragment hesitated. "Two opposite forces… coexisting?"
Ne Job smirked. "Yeah. It's called teamwork."
He released the Spark — not as an explosion, but as a pulse of understanding.
The Architect froze. Its ink-like body rippled. Then, slowly, it knelt.
> "Perhaps… the blueprint was wrong."
Yue lowered her hand. "You remember?"
> "Yes. I remember what they erased. I designed the heavens to evolve… not stagnate."
The world around them began to dissolve, the blueprints fading into light.
> "I will return to sleep. But awaken the others. The Bureau's perfection was my failure."
The light consumed everything.
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Ne Job blinked — and they were back on the surface, standing on a quiet plateau of folded paper and glass. The Factory was gone. The sky was full of new stars — each one pulsing with divine code.
Yue stared at the readings on her tablet, awe breaking through her usual composure. "Two godfragments awakened. The Bureau's containment grid is already fluctuating. If we keep this up…"
He nodded. "Yeah. Heaven won't know what hit it."
She looked at him — not disapproving this time, but uncertain. "You realize this isn't a rebellion anymore. This is reconstruction."
He smiled faintly. "Guess I'll need a better title than 'Intern.'"
"Don't push your luck."
A breeze swept across the paper horizon, carrying faint echoes of machinery and divine humming — the world itself rewriting its blueprints.
And somewhere far above, in the silent halls of the Shard Court, Lord Xian opened his eyes.
> "Two awakened," he murmured. "Then the cycle begins again."