Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 102: "Blueprints of Heaven"
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The first thing Yue noticed was the silence.
Not the absence of sound—but the kind of silence that listened back.
The plateau of folded paper stretched endlessly under a dim, silver sky. In the distance, faint constellations pulsed in geometric rhythm, like schematics breathing. Each star represented a godfragment, now faintly active, their awakening reshaping the Bureau's reality layer by layer.
Her Bureau tablet flickered with corrupted warnings:
> [⚠ SYSTEM INTEGRITY — 41%]
[⚠ UNAUTHORIZED REALITY OVERLAY DETECTED]
[⚠ RECONSTRUCTION SIGNAL SPREADING]
She exhaled, hands trembling just slightly.
"Ne Job… do you realize what this means?"
The intern grinned, kneeling beside a sheet of glowing paper that reformed itself into a cube. "That I might finally get a raise?"
"Ne Job."
"Okay, okay." He stood, rubbing the back of his head. "It means the Bureau's divine architecture is changing. Heaven's foundations are literally being rewritten. And judging by your expression, that's not supposed to happen."
Yue frowned. "No. The Bureau's structure wasn't built to adapt. The entire divine administration depends on fixed logic—immutable laws. If these fragments continue syncing, the old framework will collapse."
He smirked. "Collapse or evolve?"
She hesitated.
> "Evolve," whispered a voice from nowhere.
They turned sharply.
The air shimmered, and a figure materialized — not divine, not mechanical, but drawn. Outlines of living ink, shifting constantly between form and concept. The Architect — Fragment Two — had not fully vanished after all.
Yue immediately stepped forward, defensive. "You said you would return to sleep."
> "I did," the Architect replied, its voice flowing like liquid geometry. "But my dreams are now invaded by change. The blueprint reshapes itself. Even I must witness it."
Ne Job crossed his arms. "So what's next? You give us a divine compass or something?"
> "A map," the Architect said simply. "To find the others."
A wave of ink flowed from its hand, forming a circular sigil in the air — a vast design of seven interconnected nodes. Each node pulsed faintly with a symbol: hammer, scale, flame, quill, gear, and two that remained blank.
> "These are the Godfragments of the Artisan Cycle. Each once governed an aspect of creation. You have awakened the Soul and the Design. Five remain."
Yue studied the map closely. "Where are these located?"
> "Hidden beneath the Bureau's greatest lies," the Architect murmured. "Where purpose was replaced by policy. Where worship became paperwork."
Ne Job groaned. "So basically… the entire Bureau."
> "Correct."
Yue's tone hardened. "We can't just storm every department. Even Lord Xian would notice us by now."
At that, the Architect's form flickered slightly — as if its ink recoiled at the name.
> "Xian… the Shard Court's Judge of Order. He guards the Seventh Fragment."
Ne Job froze. "Wait. You mean he's one of them?"
> "He is not a fragment. But he holds the Key of Null, forged from their broken code. He is the warden of their sleep."
Yue exchanged a look with Ne Job — both realizing the same thing.
Everything they'd done so far had been under his watch.
Ne Job sighed. "Great. So we're basically hacking heaven in front of its IT administrator."
The Architect's eyes glowed faintly.
> "When the cycle completes, the Bureau will no longer resemble the heaven you know. The Shard Court will resist. Be ready."
It raised one hand. The map pulsed, burning itself into Ne Job's and Yue's resonance marks.
> "Your paths are now linked. To awaken the third fragment, seek the Anvil of Echoes — the Forge Below the Clouds."
Then, as suddenly as it came, the Architect dissolved into vapor, leaving only the faint hum of mechanical thunder.
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Ne Job stretched, staring up at the silver sky. "Forge Below the Clouds. Sounds poetic."
Yue checked her readings again. "That's the Celestial Foundry Sector. One of the Bureau's most secure production zones. You'll need full divine clearance to even approach it."
He grinned. "Then I'll just tell them I'm an intern doing overtime."
"Ne Job—"
"Relax, Yue. What's the worst that could happen? They demote me?"
Her deadpan stare said it all.
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Hours later, they stood before a vast elevator carved into the clouds — a colossal column descending through layers of mist, each lined with floating gears and glowing sigils. The air smelled faintly of metal and incense.
Ne Job leaned over the railing, watching the light shimmer far below. "How far down are we going?"
Yue typed rapidly on her device. "Based on old schematics… about nine hundred divine strata. The Foundry lies just above the Mortal Vein — where divine energy becomes material."
"Cool," Ne Job said. "So we're basically going into the gods' basement."
She gave him a look. "Try not to break anything. The Foundry isn't just a workplace—it's where divine prototypes are tested. Failed ideas, abandoned designs, forbidden inventions—"
"—and probably lots of angry security spirits, got it."
He grinned.
The elevator rumbled as it began to descend, the world shifting into darker hues of blue and gold. Chains rattled, clouds gave way to molten metal rivers, and enormous hammers echoed in the distance.
The sound wasn't mechanical—it was heartlike.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Each strike resonated with the rhythm of the universe.
Yue whispered, "The Anvil of Echoes… it's awake."
Ne Job looked around, the red glow of his Spark flickering faintly. "Guess it knows we're coming."
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Meanwhile, far above in the Shard Court, Lord Xian stood before an array of suspended documents — each glowing with divine ink, each whispering warnings of instability.
One parchment bore a single phrase written in red:
> "FRAGMENT TWO: REAWAKENED."
His usually composed face tightened slightly. "So it begins."
Assistant Yue's last report still lingered in the archives, untouched, unapproved. He traced her name with one gloved finger, his tone unreadable.
> "Yue… Ne Job… you've stepped beyond divine protocol. I can't allow the system to collapse."
He raised his gavel, and reality itself responded.
A ripple spread across the Bureau network, summoning spectral enforcers.
> "Deploy the Shard Compliance Division. The Intern will be retrieved. The Auditor will be erased."
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Back at the descending elevator, Yue shivered suddenly, clutching her chest.
"Ne Job… something's coming."
He turned, eyes narrowing as the air behind them warped—seven shadowy figures emerging from the clouds, each wearing Bureau insignia shaped like glass shards.
> "INTERN NE JOB. AUDITOR YUE. BY ORDER OF THE SHARD COURT — YOU ARE UNDER DIVINE ARREST."
Ne Job cracked his knuckles. "Finally. I was getting bored."