1. Debriefing Begins With an Insult
Ne Job emerged from the Death Layer covered in smeared ink, half-burnt parchment scraps, and an attitude.
Qi-Yun pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You look," he said slowly, "like someone printed you on the wrong setting."
Ne Job threw his arms up.
"I un-died! TWICE. Can I get ONE compliment?!"
"No."
"Not even a tiny one?"
"No."
Ne Job clenched his fists and vibrated with offended triumph.
"I literally clawed myself back into existence!"
Qi-Yun waved dismissively.
"Yes, yes. You refused non-existence—good. The bare minimum. Now we begin the actual training."
Ne Job choked.
"THAT WASN'T THE TRAINING?!"
Qi-Yun handed him something.
Ne Job accepted it.
He stared.
"…Is this a pen?"
Qi-Yun nodded.
"A Class-3 Auditor's Pen."
"It's tiny."
"Yes."
"It weighs nothing."
"Yes."
"It looks… weak."
Qi-Yun's eye twitched.
"This pen," he said through gritted teeth, "is the most dangerous object in the Archive. Mishandled, it can erase civilizations."
Ne Job held it like it was a suspicious mushroom.
"Cool. I'm afraid of it."
"Good. You should be."
---
2. A Lesson in Violence (Bureaucratic Edition)
Qi-Yun gestured at a floating slab of regulations.
"Lesson Two: An Auditor does not fight with strength. An Auditor fights with authority."
Ne Job raised a hand.
"I don't have authority."
"You have intern authority," Qi-Yun corrected.
Ne Job winced.
"That sounds… negligible."
"It is," Qi-Yun said.
He stepped forward.
Then he clicked the pen.
Just a tiny click.
The slab of regulations exploded into dust.
Ne Job screamed.
"You click it and things DIE?!"
"No," Qi-Yun corrected. "They get reviewed until they cease to exist."
"That's WORSE."
Qi-Yun smiled faintly.
"Yes. Now you try."
He pointed toward a floating mass of hostile forms—ugly, knotted clumps of rejected paperwork drifting like angry jellyfish.
A label shimmered above them:
> ARCHIVE ANOMALY — CLUSTER OF UNRESOLVED REQUESTS
Mood: Desperate. Very desperate.
Ne Job trembled.
"They look sad."
Qi-Yun: "They are. Now eliminate them."
"But—"
"No buts."
Ne Job held up the pen.
Nothing happened.
He clicked it.
Still nothing.
He clicked it harder.
The pen vibrated faintly, like it was judging him.
Ne Job yelled at it:
"CAN YOU PLEASE DO THE THING?!"
The pen beeped.
> USER NOT AUTHORIZED FOR FULL REVIEW MODE.
Reason: Intern.
Ne Job nearly cried.
Qi-Yun sighed, stepped behind him, and guided Ne Job's hand forward.
He whispered:
"Stop forcing it. Authority is not power. Authority is the ability to make the world agree with your paperwork."
Ne Job blinked.
He let his breathing settle.
He pictured the 600-year queue.
He pictured the Erasure Beast eating him.
He pictured his own shredded bits yelling "NO."
A quiet spark ignited.
He whispered:
"I… reject your existence."
The pen glowed.
A thin line of silver ink shot forward—
snap
The paperwork jellyfish evaporated like they had never been submitted.
A chime echoed:
> Audit Pen Affinity +1
User can now perform Minor Reviews without supervision.
Ne Job gasped.
"I DID IT!"
Qi-Yun nodded.
"You weaponized irritation. Excellent."
Ne Job blinked.
"…Is that my specialty?"
"It's your greatest gift."
---
3. The Real Test Appears (Of Course It Does)
The ground shook.
A massive ripple tore across the Dead Archive's horizon.
Alarm glyphs blared.
Qi-Yun's expression darkened.
"That is not supposed to happen."
A new figure emerged from the shadows:
A towering humanoid silhouette made of redacted sentences, black bars, and classified markings.
Its face was just a blank rectangle labeled:
> [CONFIDENTIAL]
Ne Job whispered:
"Sir. Why is that thing headlined like a government cover-up?"
Qi-Yun's tone sharpened.
"That is a Redaction Wraith. It forms when too much information is censored in too little time."
The Wraith roared with the sound of 10,000 pages being blacked out at once.
Ne Job: "I CAN'T FIGHT THAT WITH A PEN!"
Qi-Yun: "You won't."
Ne Job sagged with relief.
Qi-Yun: "I will."
Ne Job: "…Less relieving."
---
4. Qi-Yun Shows Why Everyone Feared Him During the Audit Wars
Qi-Yun stepped forward, pen spinning lightly between his fingers.
He clicked it once.
The world froze.
Ne Job's jaw dropped.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!"
Qi-Yun answered calmly:
"Audit Mode. Class-S."
Reality around the Wraith began peeling apart like sheets of old paper.
The Wraith hissed and swung a massive arm of redacted paragraphs.
Qi-Yun ducked—
—not with speed, but with efficiency.
Every movement perfectly minimal, ridiculously elegant.
He flicked the pen.
Lines of shimmering ink slashed across the Wraith.
Chunks of censored material fell away, dissolving into clean text.
He clicked again.
A shockwave burst outward.
The Wraith staggered.
Qi-Yun raised the pen.
For a brief moment, he looked like a scholar, a warrior, and a tired office worker hitting his limit all at once.
"Full review," he declared.
He drew a single glowing line through the air—
—and reality itself edited the Wraith out.
The creature vanished.
Ne Job collapsed.
"YOU CAN DELETE MONSTERS WITH GOOD HANDWRITING?!"
Qi-Yun shrugged.
"Medium handwriting."
---
5. Un-Dying Meets Authority
Qi-Yun turned back to Ne Job.
"You saw the difference."
Ne Job nodded weakly.
"You're a laser printer. I'm a broken fax machine."
"That will change," Qi-Yun said.
He tapped Ne Job's chest.
"Your un-dying spark is not strength. It is a refusal. That makes it compatible with authority. One rejects death. The other rejects inefficiency."
Ne Job blinked.
"So, if I combine them…"
Qi-Yun smiled.
"You'll become an Auditor who cannot die and will not accept any outcome except the correct one."
Ne Job whispered:
"…I'd be unstoppable."
Qi-Yun nodded once.
"If you survive training."
"Oh."
---
6. Outside, Yue Feels a New Shockwave
Back near the sealed corridor, Yue jolted so hard she dropped her jade clipboard.
Ling caught her shoulders.
"Again?! What now?!"
Yue's voice trembled.
"That wasn't death-resistance this time."
"Then what?"
Yue stared into the glowing seal, eyes wide.
"He just channeled something bigger. Something structured."
Ling blinked.
"Structured? Like… paperwork?"
Yue swallowed.
"No. Worse."
She closed her eyes.
"I think—Ne Job just accessed authority."
Ling went silent.
"That's… impossible," she whispered.
Yue nodded slowly.
"Exactly."
---
END OF CHAPTER 188