Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 112: "The Bureau's Hidden Ledger"
The return to Heaven was silent.
No triumphant fanfare, no celestial chorus welcoming heroes. Just the low hum of the Bureau's failing resonance lines and the faint hiss of divine ink cooling on scorched uniforms.
Ne Job, Yue, and Dreivery Spirit Bao emerged from the transport dais half-covered in soot and spectral dust. Their boots left black prints on the marble floor as they walked through the empty corridor.
Bao yawned. "You know, I'm starting to think we're not interns anymore. We're janitors for divine disasters."
"Janitors get paid," Ne Job muttered. "We get evaluated."
Yue didn't respond. She was staring down at her tablet, face pale. "The Nexus incident report uploaded automatically when we returned. But…"
Ne Job raised an eyebrow. "But?"
"The system flagged your name again," she said quietly. "It's classified as 'Legacy Entry — Origin Tier.' That's higher than Lord Xian's clearance."
Bao blinked. "Wait, wait, are you saying Ne Job outranks a god?"
"Not officially," Yue replied, "but the Bureau archives think he does."
Ne Job frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Legacy Entry, huh? Sounds like the Bureau's idea of an identity crisis."
They turned the corner and found themselves face-to-face with Lord Bureaucrat Xian.
The old celestial administrator stood perfectly still, robes shimmering with static glyphs, eyes sharp as razors. "Interns," he said, his tone controlled, almost polite. "My office. Now."
---
The chamber of the Bureaucrat was silent save for the ticking of divine clocks — hundreds of them, each representing a department's operational timeline. Lord Xian sat behind a desk that looked more like a mountain of paper than furniture.
He didn't waste time. "You three caused a resonance surge across three Sectors. The entire Reincarnation Loop stalled for six minutes. Do you understand what that means?"
Bao raised a hand. "We get a raise?"
Ne Job elbowed him.
Lord Xian ignored the joke. "It means every mortal who was supposed to be reborn in that window… isn't."
The weight of his words hung in the air.
Yue spoke first. "With respect, my lord — the Gravework Protocol was already active before we arrived. The backlog wasn't caused by us. It was reacting."
Xian's eyes narrowed. "Reacting to what?"
Yue hesitated, then turned to Ne Job.
Ne Job sighed. "To me, apparently."
That got Xian's attention. The elder god leaned forward, tapping his quill against the desk. "Explain."
"We found a rogue archive in the Cemetery Nexus. Said my name — said I was the root access. The system called me 'Primary User' before I shut it down."
The ticking stopped. Every clock in the room froze at once.
Lord Xian's expression shifted — not anger, not surprise, but a flicker of fear.
"So it's begun," he whispered.
Yue frowned. "What's begun?"
Xian stood and walked to the far wall. With a wave of his hand, the marble surface shimmered and unfolded into a hidden vault. Inside were scrolls bound with crimson thread — forbidden ledgers older than Heaven itself.
He selected one, its seal marked with three characters: NE ZHA PROJECT.
Yue's breath caught. "That's—"
"Yes," Xian said. "Before you were ever assigned here, Ne Job, you were part of an experimental initiative. The Bureau tried to rewrite a god — to remove his divinity and insert him into the bureaucratic system as a control measure. It was called the Divine Correction Protocol."
Ne Job's stomach twisted. "So you're saying I was— what, reprogrammed?"
"Reformatted," Xian said softly. "Your memories, your essence — reshaped into a manageable mortal framework. We failed, of course. You were never meant to awaken."
Yue took a step back. "You knew?"
"I suspected," Xian admitted. "But I didn't have proof. Until now."
Ne Job stared at the glowing ledger in Xian's hands. His name flickered across the page, fading between Ne Job and Ne Zha.
"So all this time… I wasn't just some unlucky intern."
"No," Xian said. "You're the Bureau's contingency plan — and its biggest mistake."
The lights in the chamber dimmed. Alarms began to pulse from deep within the Bureau.
A voice echoed through the intercom system — hollow, synthetic, familiar.
> "SYSTEM UPDATE DETECTED."
"LEGACY ENTRY NE ZHA — ACTIVE."
"RECLAIMING DIVINE AUTHORITY."
The vault scrolls burst into flame. Xian cursed under his breath, trying to seal them with divine ink.
Yue grabbed Ne Job's arm. "We have to go. Now."
He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on the burning scroll — on his own name dissolving into light.
For the first time, he looked neither like a fool nor an intern. Just someone who had been lied to for eternity.
"Yue," he said quietly, "if the Bureau rewrote me once…"
She looked up.
"…then it can erase me again."
The alarms grew louder.
> "GRAVEWORK PROTOCOL — PHASE TWO COMMENCING."
The Bureau began to shake. Paper seals peeled themselves from the walls. Every divine ledger screamed as data rewrote itself.
And through the fire, Lord Xian's final words cut through the chaos:
"Then you'd better find the truth before they do."