Chapter 110: The Reboot Ruse
The Bureau had outlasted erasers and moderation, but at 13:00 Cycles, it faced the most lucrative threat of all: Accessibility. From the ceiling fell a Giant Silver Curtain, heavy as lead and smelling of new plastic and fresh paint. It didn't just hide the Lobby; it began to Wipe the Slate.
"Commissioner!" Assistant Yue's voice was being replaced by a cheerful, high-energy pop-star filter. "WE. ARE. UNDERGOING. A. 'FRANCHISE. REFRESH'. THE. 'DEPARTMENT. OF. MARKET. REACH'. HAS. DECIDED. THAT. 109. CHAPTERS. IS. 'TOO. MUCH. HOMEWORK'. FOR. NEW. READERS. THEY. ARE. ATTEMPTING. TO. 'START. FROM. ZERO'. THEY. WANT. TO. RE-INTRODUCE. YOU. AS. A. 'TEENAGE. ARCHIVIST'. WITH. AN. 'EDGY. ATTITUDE'!"
The Reset Ripple
Behind the curtain, the "New Reality" began to overwrite the old.
The Muse looked down as her neon-blue hair turned into a 7.5% more "Marketable" bubblegum pink. "Ne Job! I'm being 'Re-Imagined'! They've taken away my deep cosmic sparks and replaced them with 'Magic Glitter'! I don't remember Novus Aethel! I just remember... wanting to go to the mall?"
Architect Ao Bing was shrinking. "I'm a 'Kid Genius' now!" he squeaked, his leopard-skin robe becoming a 100% polyester hoodie. "My city is just a 'Minecraft' level!"
Pip was becoming a "Talking Toaster" with a 7.5% increase in snark.
Ne Job felt his knees stop aching—a sure sign of impending youth. His silver-plumed hat was morphing into a backwards baseball cap. His memories of the "Celestial Clockwork" were being filed under "Non-Canon Legends."
"I am not a 'Reboot'!" Ne Job roared, his voice cracking between an authoritative bass and a teenage squawk. "I have Seniority! You can't replace a century of experience with a 'Fresh New Look'!"
The 7.5% Continuity Gap
A voice boomed from the "Producer's Chair" beyond the curtain—a voice that sounded like a focus group in a blender. "The brand is bloated, Ne Job. We need a 'Clean Entry Point.' We're stripping away the 'Complex Punctuation' and the 'Departmental Lore.' We're making you... 'Relatable'!"
The Giant Silver Curtain began to close around Ne Job. If it touched him, his 110 chapters of growth would be reduced to a "Flashback Sequence" in a "Pilot Episode."
The Semicolon of Stubborn History
Ne Job realized that a Reboot is just a "Period" that thinks it's a "Chapter One." It wants to kill the "And" to make the "Beginning" easier to sell.
"A story isn't a 'Product'!" Ne Job yelled, thrusting the Semicolon into the heavy silver fabric of the curtain. "It's an Accumulation!"
He didn't fire at the curtain. He used the Semicolon to Staple the Continuity. He touched the violet light to the "New Reality" and channeled the Unbearable Weight of the 109 Chapters Before:
The 7.5% of the story that only makes sense if you were there in Chapter 3.
The "Emotional Scar Tissue" of 100 calibrated disasters.
The absolute, 100% refusal to be "Simplified" for a "New Demographic."
The Canon Clash
The violet energy hit the "Magic Glitter" of the Reboot and turned it back into "Creative Aether." The Semicolon acted as a Narrative Anchor. It dragged the "New Characters" back into their "Old Selves." The Muse's pink hair flickered and snapped back to electric-neon blue. Ao Bing grew six feet in a second, his leopard-skin robe reappearing with a 7.5% increase in majesty.
The Giant Silver Curtain tore down the middle, unable to contain the sheer volume of "Previous Events." The "Corporate Entity" fled into the "Deleted Scenes," muttering about "Niche Appeal."
The Archivist's Log
Ne Job adjusted his hat—his real, silver-plumed, 100% canon hat. His knees began to ache again, and he had never been so happy to feel old.
LOG: CHAPTER 110 SUMMARY.
STATUS: Reboot averted. Continuity 100% preserved.
NOTE: You can't start over if you haven't finished the sentence.
OBSERVATION: 'Relatable' is just a code-word for 'Lacking a Semicolon.'
P.S.: Assistant Yue is still 7.5% 'Pop-Star.' She's currently auto-tuning the filing system. I've told her to stop 'Remixing' the trajectories.
The Muse leaned over his shoulder, her hair glowing with a defiant, neon-violet. "We're 'Classic' now, Ne Job. We're 'Hardcore Lore'."
Ne Job looked at the Semicolon. It was glowing with a deep, historic, and un-rebootable violet.
"Lore is just a fancy word for 'Doing Your Job,' Muse," Ne Job said. "Now, why is Assistant Yue sounding a 7.5% alarm and why has a Giant Silver Ghost appeared in the Lobby, and why does it look like The Author who stopped writing five minutes ago?"