Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 110: "The Briefing Before the Storm"
The light over the Bureau flickered like an exhausted candle. The divine corridors — once resonant with the hum of paper charms and decree scrolls — now sounded hollow. The Bureau's walls had become a battlefield of memos and battle plans.
Ne Job sat on the edge of his desk, surrounded by files marked "CEMETERY BACKLOG — URGENT." Each one was a soul that hadn't been processed, a fate left hanging in limbo. Yue stood across from him, holding a tray of teacups that rattled slightly in her hands.
"Another pile from the Shard Division," she said softly. "If we don't clear this by tomorrow's inspection, Lord Xian will—"
"—implode into divine paperwork dust? Yeah, I know." Ne Job sighed, rubbing his temples. "He already threatened to assign me a second assistant made entirely of complaint letters."
Yue frowned, setting the tray down. "You joke when you're nervous."
He smirked. "And you make tea when you're stressed. We both have coping mechanisms."
The room was silent for a moment — a rare, fragile pause in the bureaucratic chaos of Heaven. The walls hummed faintly with divine resonance, reacting to the tension between them.
Then, the emergency scroll snapped open mid-air with a shriek of light.
> "MANDATE PRIORITY: CLASS-OMEGA INCIDENT DETECTED."
"LOCATION: CEMETERY NEXUS — UNDERWORLD SECTOR 9."
"RETRIEVE, RESEAL, AND REPORT."
Ne Job's smirk vanished. "It's the backlog… it's overflowing again."
Yue's eyes widened. "That's impossible. We already sealed the Gate two chapters ago—"
"Yeah, well, looks like someone tore the seal off and used it as a coaster." He grabbed his Bureau badge, glowing faintly red. "Come on. If we don't deal with this now, those unprocessed souls will spill into the Mortal Layer."
Yue hesitated. "Ne Job… are you sure we're ready? The last time you went down there—"
He stopped at the door. "I wasn't an intern with backup then." He turned to her, a rare sincerity in his tone. "Now I've got you."
Yue blinked — half surprised, half annoyed — but the corners of her mouth softened. "You're lucky I haven't filed a harassment complaint for your motivational speeches."
He chuckled. "Filed where? The complaint box burned down last week."
The two stepped out into the storm-lit hallway. The Bureau's glass panels reflected streaks of lightning — divine energy bleeding through cracks in the realm. Every god, scribe, and spirit they passed gave them a look of grim understanding.
At the transport dais, Dreivery Spirit Bao was already waiting, holding a clipboard and a donut. "You two again? Great. Guess we're bringing the chaos trio back together."
"Save your sarcasm for after we survive," Yue muttered, stepping onto the glowing platform.
"Uploading coordinates to the Underworld Sector," Bao said. "Cemetery Nexus is unstable. Soul density's off the charts."
Ne Job grinned. "Then it's a perfect day for overtime."
The portal flared open — violet light, fractured sigils, and echoes of the dead whispering between worlds.
As the three vanished into the breach, a distant rumble shook the Bureau of Heaven. Files fluttered off desks. The divine typewriters paused mid-stroke.
And somewhere far below, deep within the Cemetery Nexus, something ancient stirred — a forgotten ledger flipping itself open, ink bleeding into the shape of a face.
> "Welcome back, intern."