Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 147: "Executive Override"
Light.
Blinding, law-forged light.
The moment Ne Job declared the first unwritten rule, the chamber detonated in a surge of authority and chaos so intense that even the pillars of jurisprudence shook like frightened animals. The entire Sub-Article Core trembled, lines of statute peeling off the walls like shedding skin.
At the center of the storm—
Lord Bureaucrat Xian activated the Executive Override.
The fragmented Mandala above his head snapped into alignment, gears grinding, plates rotating with brutal precision. Every broken piece forced itself into place by sheer divine protocol.
Yue whispered, "Ne Job… once the Override completes, he becomes the absolute directive."
Ne Job braced himself as the Mandala emitted a single, deafening gong.
"Not if we interrupt the reboot."
---
Override: Stage One — Directive Ascension
Reality folded inward.
Xian rose above the floor as if the chamber itself had become his throne. His voice multiplied, layered with statutes from centuries of directors before him.
"EXECUTIVE OVERRIDE: ENACTING ORDER PRIME."
Columns collapsed into scrolls. Scrolls unraveled into glyphs. Glyphs fused into golden chains that encircled Xian like a crown of living law.
Yue's manual flickered violently, rejecting the new hierarchy.
"Ne Job—he's rewriting every protocol we've ever worked with!"
"Then we don't use the protocols!"
Ne Job summoned pure chaos, letting the Spark roar to life. Lightning scribbles erupted from his hands, forming jagged spirals in the air.
Xian countered instantly.
"CHAOS NULLIFICATION."
Half the spirals dissolved.
The other half twisted, becoming ink serpents that bit their own tails and exploded into confetti.
Ne Job panted.
"Oh that is SO RUDE."
Yue snapped open her manual, pages flipping at hyperspeed. "We need to disrupt the Override sequence!"
Xian raised a hand.
Sphere of law.
Lines of ancient mandates circled it like planetary rings.
"YOU CANNOT INTERRUPT ORDER PRIME."
Ne Job shouted back—
"WATCH ME TRY."
---
Override: Stage Two — Rewrite Protocol
The Mandala glowed red.
A beam shot out and struck the chamber floor, inscribing a massive circle of runes. The circle expanded outward, passing beneath Ne Job and Yue like a scanning light.
Yue flinched.
"He's trying to rewrite us. Our roles. Our memories."
Ne Job's heartbeat spiked.
His memories—already fractured, already stolen once—
He wasn't losing them again.
He slammed the Chaos Spark into the rewriting light, yelling:
"NO ONE EDITS MY CHARACTER ARC BUT ME!"
Chaos erupted outward in a messy, glorious shockwave that cracked the rewrite sequence in half.
The runes flickered, unstable.
Xian wavered mid-air, eyes narrowing.
"You resist order with absurdity."
Ne Job grinned.
"It's called personality. Try it sometime."
---
Override: Stage Three — Absolute Enforcement
Yue suddenly gasped. "Ne Job—he's entering the final stage! If he completes it, the Override becomes irreversible!"
Xian extended both arms.
Mandala plates unfolded into wings of law.
Golden beams shot toward them.
Yue shielded Ne Job, her manual forming a barrier of luminous clauses.
The beams hit—
The barrier cracked—
Yue bit back a cry as the force pushed her to one knee.
Ne Job grabbed her shoulder.
"YUE! Hey—stay with me!"
Her voice was strained but steady:
"I'm fine. But he's overpowering both principles—Order and Chaos. We need something else."
Ne Job blinked.
"What else is there?"
Then—
A voice, distant yet familiar, whispered through the chamber:
"Balance."
Yue stiffened.
The Echo of Balance shimmered faintly behind her like a translucent silhouette—a presence older than the Bureau, older than Order, older than Chaos.
Xian's eyes widened for the first time.
"No… impossible. That concept was erased. Eliminated. Purged from the Mandala."
Yue's hair lifted in a phantom breeze as pages of her manual restructured on their own.
"No," she said quietly.
"It lived."
---
The Return of Balance
A third force surged through the chamber.
Not rigid like Xian's order.
Not wild like Ne Job's chaos.
Something precise.
Measured.
Corrective.
It flowed from Yue's manual into Ne Job's Spark, then outward in a spiraling helix of dual energy.
Ne Job and Yue stood side by side as a new resonance formed:
Chaos + Order = Equilibrium.
Equilibrium = Balance.
The Mandala stuttered.
Xian shook as if struck.
"STOP! BALANCE IS A DEFECT! A FAILURE OF SYSTEM!"
Yue stepped forward, eyes glowing with mirrored sigils.
"No. It was the part you feared most."
Ne Job stepped beside her.
"Because balance means everyone counts. Not just the ones who fit your rules."
Together, they raised their hands—
Yue channeling harmonic order,
Ne Job channeling defiant chaos,
The Echo interweaving them with impossible perfection.
A new sigil formed in the air:
THE RULE OF BALANCE.
Unwritten.
Unrecorded.
Unstoppable.
They fired it at Xian.
---
The Breaking of the Override
The beam struck the Mandala.
Cracks exploded across its surface.
The rings shattered.
The wings collapsed.
Xian screamed—not in pain, but in disbelief.
"NO! ORDER PRIME IS ABSOLUTE!"
Ne Job roared over the collapsing chamber:
"NOT ANYMORE!"
Balance imploded into the Override.
The shockwave erased the rule-structures surrounding Xian, stripping away the layers of authority he had accumulated.
The Mandala broke apart.
Xian fell to his knees, gasping as the override sigils disintegrated around him like burning paper.
Silence fell.
The greatest rule the Bureau had ever enforced—
Was undone.
---
Ne Job approached carefully.
Xian didn't look up.
His voice was barely audible.
"Without the Mandala… without Order Prime… I am nothing."
Ne Job crouched in front of him.
"That's your problem, Xian. You thought authority defines you."
He offered a hand.
"But you can still choose who you want to be."
Xian stared at the hand.
For a moment, the entire Bureau held its breath.
Then—
He reached.
Barely touching Ne Job's fingers.
A start.
A possibility.
A choice.
---
Yue exhaled shakily. "Ne Job… the Override is broken. The Bureau is no longer bound to his absolute authority."
Ne Job looked at her and grinned weakly.
"Great. Can we take a ten-minute break now? I'm emotionally deceased."
Yue rolled her eyes—but she couldn't hide her smile.
"Five minutes. And then we rebuild."
Together.
End of Chapter 147 — "Executive Override."