Ne Job: The Intern from Hell — Chapter 156: "The Memory That Was Never Filed"
The Archive shifted.
Not smoothly.
Not elegantly.
With a groaning, tectonic lurch—like a filing system older than creation waking after an eon of sleep—walls peeled back, shelves bent into new shapes, and the floor restructured itself beneath Ne Job's feet.
The Tier 0 Auditor stepped aside with reverence, its ink-face dimming to a neutral glow.
"INTERN PRIME.
PROCEED."
Yue exhaled shakily beside him, still pale but standing.
Ne Job squeezed her hand. "Ready?"
She squeezed back. "No. But go."
He smiled faintly. "Same."
Together they stepped forward into the newly formed corridor.
And immediately felt it.
A pressure—not physical, not magical, but filing pressure—as if they'd walked into the gap between two bureaucratic laws.
Yue whispered, "…this is forbidden territory. This memory isn't classified. It's unfiled."
Ne Job felt a chill crawl down his spine. "Meaning…?"
"There are only two types of memories that get stored unfiled."
She swallowed.
"Accidents…
And crimes."
---
The Unfiled Vault
The corridor narrowed into a single doorway.
No engravings.
No runes.
Not even a lock.
Simply a blank frame of stone—untouched by any protocol.
A memory that shouldn't exist.
Ne Job stepped through first, Yue right behind him—
—and the world snapped into a different reality.
Not the Archive.
Not Heaven.
Not anywhere he recognized.
They stood on a floating platform suspended in a void of swirling paper ash. Thousands of blank sheets drifted like snow, dissolving when they neared the platform's edge.
At the center was a pedestal.
And on that pedestal—
A single folder.
Old.
Cracking.
Unlabeled.
Yue inhaled sharply. "Ne Job… this is a Null-Record Folder."
He blinked. "Sounds… normal-ish?"
"It's a folder reserved exclusively for erased memories."
"Oh. Cool. Totally chill."
"Ne Job—Null-Records only exist when someone intentionally removes a memory from existence and hides the act."
"So… a cosmic cover-up."
"Yes."
Ne Job approached the pedestal slowly.
The folder vibrated, faintly humming like a caged heartbeat.
"I don't like this," he whispered.
Yue moved beside him, placing a hand on his back. "Then we open it together."
He nodded.
And they lifted the cover.
---
The Forgotten Scene
The folder didn't reveal pages.
Instead—
The world shattered again.
They were pulled into a memory like falling into a dream someone had tried to erase.
Blackness.
Then—
Light.
They stood in a vast marble hall.
Clean.
Pristine.
New.
A sign overhead read:
DEPARTMENT OF REBIRTH — PROTOTYPE DIVISION
Yue froze. "Ne Job… this is centuries before our Bureau existed."
Figures moved in the distance—blurred silhouettes of ancient clerks, architects of divine processes, Codifiers in their true forms.
Ne Job and Yue remained intangible observers.
A voice echoed across the hall, sharp and youthful:
"Prototype Station 01 online! Begin calibrations!"
Another voice snapped:
"Where is the intern? We can't start the anchor tests without him!"
Ne Job blinked. "Anchor—? That's what the First Intern called himself."
Yue nodded tightly. "This is the beginning. The very first intern cycle."
A young assistant stepped into view—the prototype design, recognizable in subtle features that would later evolve into Yue's own role.
She carried a manual half her size.
Behind her—
A door opened.
A figure stepped out.
And Ne Job felt his blood turn to ice.
Because the figure…
Looked exactly…
Like him.
Except older.
Hardened.
Smarter.
Sharper around the edges.
Yue whispered, breath trembling:
"Ne Job… that's the First Intern."
He was fully visible now—no longer a silhouette.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same presence.
Except his expression was heavier—like someone who had seen too much and remembered all of it.
Prototype Yue saluted him. "Anchor Prime—initializing your cycle."
Anchor Prime nodded once. "Let's get this over with. The Directors are impatient."
Prototype Yue hesitated. "…Are you certain the anchor process won't harm you?"
"Probably will," Anchor Prime said lightly.
Ne Job blinked. "Okay what—"
Yue elbowed him silently.
Anchor Prime walked to a circular platform inscribed with concentric rings of runes. Codifiers gathered around, adjusting settings on massive scroll-machines.
One Codifier asked:
"Final confirmation: You still volunteer?"
Anchor Prime exhaled.
"Yes. If this stabilizes the Rebirth system, then I accept the risk."
Yue whispered, "This is before resurrection cycles existed. They had no way to consistently reboot souls. They needed something—or someone—to anchor the system."
The platform lit up.
Anchor Prime stood tall.
But Ne Job noticed something odd.
A flicker behind the machinery.
A moving silhouette.
Someone who shouldn't be there.
---
The Sabotage
The platform activated.
Light exploded upward—
But it twisted.
Bent.
Warped.
Anchor Prime's expression shifted instantly from calm to alarm.
Prototype Yue shouted, "The calibration output is shifting! Someone tampered with the—"
BOOOOM.
The energy detonated.
Anchor Prime was flung off the platform, crashing into a marble pillar. Runes cracked. Protocol machinery collapsed.
Codifiers screamed orders that came out distorted.
Ne Job stepped back instinctively even though the memory couldn't touch him.
Prototype Yue rushed to Anchor Prime's side. "Anchor! Anchor, stay awake—!"
He coughed blood.
Dark void energy crackled around him.
And then—
The moving silhouette stepped out of the shadows.
Ne Job's heart stopped.
Because the silhouette…
Was tall.
Robed.
Wearing an ancient Codifier mask with symbols that matched the chains wrapped around Lord Xian.
Yue's voice nearly broke:
"…The Old Codifiers."
The masked figure raised a hand.
"You were never meant to survive the anchor trial."
Prototype Yue screamed, "WHY?!"
The masked Codifier replied calmly:
"Because the anchor system cannot belong to one intern. It must be controlled."
He pointed at Anchor Prime.
"And he cannot be controlled."
Anchor Prime pushed himself upright, blood staining his chin.
"So… you're killing me because I don't fit the chain of command."
"Yes."
Prototype Yue lunged—but the Codifier gestured, freezing her mid-motion.
Anchor Prime shouted, "LET HER GO!"
The masked Codifier tilted his head.
"…Ah. Attachment. Predictable flaw."
He approached.
"You will die, Anchor. And we will rebuild you into something obedient."
Anchor Prime spat blood at his mask.
"Go to hell."
The Codifier's hand ignited with erasure script.
Ne Job grabbed Yue's arm instinctively—even though they were watching a memory.
"No," Ne Job whispered. "No no no no—"
Yue shook, tears forming. "This is the crime that was erased."
Anchor Prime tried to stand—but the erasure script struck his chest.
Searing light tore through him.
He screamed.
And as the Codifier's hand crushed down—
Anchor Prime reached toward Prototype Yue—
and whispered:
"Remember the Codifiers."
The same words he spoke in Ne Job's fragment vision.
Then his body shattered into glowing shards.
Prototype Yue broke free of her paralysis, collapsing beside the fading fragments.
"NO—!"
The masked Codifier turned.
"Seal this room. Seal the memory. File nothing."
The world twisted—
And the Null-Record memory collapsed.
---
Returning to the Vault
Ne Job and Yue snapped back into the floating platform, both shaking.
Ne Job collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest.
"That… that was ME."
Yue knelt beside him. "That was your predecessor. Your past incarnation. They murdered him, Ne Job. They erased him from existence."
"And then they rebuilt me," Ne Job whispered, voice breaking. "Rebooted me. Reset me. Made me forget everything."
Yue didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
Ne Job's hands trembled.
"They didn't want an anchor. They wanted a tool."
He felt sick.
"They didn't want someone who could stabilize the cycles. They wanted someone they could control."
Yue touched his shoulder gently.
"You are not a tool."
Ne Job looked up at her, eyes damp.
"But I'm not him. I'm just—"
Yue grabbed his face firmly in both hands.
"You.
Are.
You."
He froze.
"You're not a shadow of the first intern. You're not his failure. You're not his replacement."
Her voice softened, trembling:
"You're the one who broke their plan."
A beat.
"You survived."
Ne Job swallowed hard.
"And now you know the truth."
The pedestal glowed.
A new item materialized:
A small shard of Anchor Prime's broken badge.
Ne Job reached for it.
It pulsed once.
And merged into his Chaos Spark like a piece returning home.
Yue whispered, "…Your predecessor left you a part of himself."
Ne Job clenched his fist.
"Then I'm finishing what they started."
He stood.
The vault began to rumble.
A new corridor formed—darker than the last.
Yue stepped beside him, opening her manual softly.
"Where now?"
Ne Job's voice steadied.
"To find the Codifiers."
"And stop them?"
He inhaled.
"No."
Yue blinked.
"We expose them."
Her eyes widened.
"And we break their control over the Bureau."
Ne Job nodded once.
"We end the cycle."
They stepped into the darkness—
toward war.
---
END OF CHAPTER 156 — "The Memory That Was Never Filed."