The world turned sideways.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Ne Job felt the floor drop out from under him, reality stretching like someone tugged the edges of the universe. His stomach flipped. Colors smeared. Sound reversed. The sensation of falling forward and backward at the same time made his eyes water.
Then—
WHUMP.
He hit solid ground.
Next to him, Yue landed with a far more dignified (and annoyed) thud.
She pushed herself up, dusting off her robes with visible irritation. "Ne Job… when we get home… remind me to file a complaint against Dreivery Spirit Bao."
Ne Job rolled onto his back. "Can we file the complaint now?"
"No," she said flatly. "He needs to survive long enough to be punished."
He sighed. "Fair."
They stood and immediately froze.
Because the world around them was not the Heavenly Office.
Oh no.
They were in a gigantic warehouse—rows upon rows of crates stretching endlessly in every direction.
Some crates glowed.
Some rattled.
Some whispered.
One was humming suspiciously like it had swallowed a choir.
Yue exhaled sharply. "This is… the Archive of Misplaced Objects."
Ne Job blinked. "That's a real place?"
"Yes."
She massaged her temples.
"It collects everything lost, stolen, forgotten, or accidentally time-shifted. Permanently."
"Permanently?"
"Yes."
"So… the cursed pizza box—"
She pointed to the far horizon, where a giant floating sign drifted:
ZONE 88: TEMPORALLY DISPLACED FOOD ITEMS
WARNING: DO NOT OPEN ANYTHING
Ne Job squinted. "Okay… that's weirdly convenient."
Yue shook her head. "Or catastrophic. If it ended up in Zone 88, that means it wasn't just misplaced. It was classified as a temporally hazardous food anomaly."
"Pizza is dangerous now?"
"This pizza has ALWAYS been dangerous."
---
Yue POV
A sudden metallic clank echoed between the aisles.
Yue stiffened.
Ne Job reached instinctively for a weapon he did not have.
They exchanged a look.
Not alone.
Something—or multiple somethings—were moving between the towering crates, their silhouettes flickering at the edges of sight. Yue narrowed her eyes.
Temporal Displacement Entities.
"TDEs?" Ne Job whispered.
"Yes."
Her voice went tight.
"Creatures formed from time glitches. They latch onto objects… or intruders."
"How hostile?"
"Hostile."
"How hostile on a scale of 1 to 10?"
"...Seventeen."
"Oh."
A growl echoed.
Yue grabbed Ne Job's arm. "Move. Zone 88 should be northeast."
Ne Job glanced around helplessly. "Where is northeast?! There's no SUN!"
She pointed upward.
A floating compass arrow hovered in midair, wobbling erratically between directions.
"Oh," he muttered. "Convenient."
"Nothing here is convenient," she corrected.
---
Ne Job POV
They sprinted between towering stacks of crates as the shadows behind them grew larger, skittering like giant insects across the walls.
One crate shook violently.
A muffled voice screamed from inside.
"HELLO? I'VE BEEN IN HERE SINCE THE MING DYNASTY! ANYONE?"
Ne Job flinched. "Should we help?"
"No," Yue said instantly.
Another crate burst open as they passed.
A glowing mug shot out, shouting, "I'M STILL HOT, BABYYYYY!"
Ne Job pushed Yue aside as it exploded against the ground like a tiny sun.
She caught herself and glared at him. "You could have warned me."
"Sorry, the mug was screaming at me."
They kept running.
The compass arrow twitched, pointed left, spun twice, then finally stabilized.
"There—that corridor," Yue said.
But as they turned the corner—
Ne Job nearly collided with something enormous.
A creature made of warped clock faces and broken hourglasses stood in their path, hunched, breathing like a malfunctioning steam engine. Gears clacked where teeth should be. Its eyes were spinning dials.
A Temporal Displacement Entity.
A big one.
Its head rotated with a grinding screech, locking onto them.
Ne Job raised his hand as a greeting. "Hey, big guy. Nice gears—"
It roared.
Ne Job grabbed Yue. "RUN!"
---
Yue POV
The TDE barreled after them, each step shaking the entire archive. Dust rained from the crates above as Yue and Ne Job sprinted between aisles.
"We can't just keep running!" Ne Job shouted over the thunderous stomps.
"Do you have a better idea?!"
"Yes!"
"Oh no."
Ne Job skidded to a halt.
"NE JOB WHAT—"
He grabbed a crate labeled:
"Misfiled Weapons — Do Not Touch."
He opened it.
A glowing staff leapt out and smacked him in the face.
"OW!"
Another weapon, a sword shaped like a question mark, poked Yue and asked, "Why?" in a tiny voice.
Yue ignored it. "Ne Job, close the crate before—"
Too late.
Weapons burst out, flying in spirals like angry birds, attacking the TDE.
The creature roared as a boomerang shaped like a tax form sliced across its face.
Ne Job puffed up proudly. "See! I helped!"
Yue grabbed his collar and yanked him out of the way of a flaming stapler. "You unleashed chaos!"
"It was already chaotic!"
She couldn't argue with that.
One of the weapons—a glowing hammer—hovered in front of her. Yue grabbed it midair.
Ne Job blinked. "You fight now?"
"I am prepared to commit violence," she said calmly.
They turned—
The TDE was smashing through the weapon swarm, clock-face cracked, gears falling from its joints.
It lunged.
Yue leapt forward, swung her hammer, and hit it square in its core.
A sound like a clock exploding in reverse echoed across the warehouse.
BA-GUHHHHHHHHNG!
The TDE dissolved into a cloud of sand—time grains cascading to the floor.
Silence.
Ne Job slowly exhaled. "You are terrifying."
Yue tossed the hammer aside. "I am efficient."
---
Ne Job POV
The compass arrow spun twice and pointed forward again.
Zone 88 was close.
They jogged through the aisles until they reached a wide, circular chamber.
Shelves rose into the sky, each holding containers of various shapes and absurd labels:
"2015 Sandwich (Still Alive)"
"Infinite Soup (Do Not Spill)"
"Temporal Lunchbox, Pre-Cooked, Post-Eaten"
And at the far end—
Floating, glowing ominously—
Was a pizza box.
THE pizza box.
It emitted a faint whisper.
Yue's face drained of color. "This is bad."
Ne Job approached carefully. "…Worse than before?"
"Yes. That pizza shouldn't be active."
He froze. "It's active?!"
"Yes. Something inside it is reacting to the time displacement."
The box trembled.
A growl emanated from within.
Ne Job whispered, "Yue."
"Yes?"
"Is the pizza… growling?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Oh that is VERY bad."
A crack formed across the box lid.
Something inside clawed at the cardboard.
Ne Job backed away. "What do we do?"
Yue breathed out slowly, going fully into calm-rational-death-mode.
"We retrieve it without opening it. We re-stabilize it with Bao's chrono-sticker. We take it home. We let Lord Xian handle whatever is inside."
"And if it opens?"
She didn't blink.
"We die."
"Cool. Cool. Cool."
The box rattled harder.
A shrieking sound filled the air, the cardboard bending outward as something inside pushed—
Ne Job lunged.
Yue lunged with him.
Together, they slapped the chrono-sticker onto the box.
CLICK.
The growling instantly stopped.
The trembling ceased.
The box froze mid-ripple, locked in time.
Ne Job stared. "Did… did we do it?"
Yue checked the sticker's glow.
"It's stabilized. Temporarily."
She exhaled.
Then added:
"We have eight minutes before it unfreezes and the creature inside resumes trying to escape."
"Eight minutes??"
"Yes. We must return immediately."
"Okay! Grab it!"
Yue lifted the box gingerly, holding it like a bomb.
Ne Job steadied it with her.
Their eyes met.
"Home?" he asked.
"Home," she confirmed.
They turned back toward the portal forming behind them—
—and froze.
Because dozens of glowing eyes had opened across the aisles.
Every TDE in Zone 88 had awakened.
Ne Job whispered:
"Yue?"
"Yes?"
"Run?"
"RUN."
They sprinted toward the portal as the creatures screeched and charged.
And with the pizza box between them, glowing and absolutely furious, they dove—
—back into the rift just as the first creature reached them.
---
END OF CHAPTER 149