**Ne Job — Chapter 199
"The Singing Approaches (And Ne Job Wishes It Would Stop)"**
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1. The Horizon Makes a Terrifying Noise
The sky hummed.
Not like wind.
Not like thunder.
Not even like the celestial printer that jammed whenever Ne Job walked past.
This was a long, vibrating note—like a cosmic violin string being dragged across reality itself.
Ne Job clutched his chest.
"Yue. Yue. Yue. YUE. The singing is back!"
"I know," Yue said, pulse racing.
Arden drew her sword. "It's getting closer."
Qi-Yun didn't move, but the air around him tightened, as if bracing for a pressure wave.
Even the Shard Court Judge paused mid-teleport.
Her shards flickered uneasily.
"That frequency…" she muttered. "Impossible."
Ne Job waved frantically at everyone:
"What does that mean?! Why does everything impossible keep happening around me specifically? WHY AM I THE PROBLEM PACKAGE?!"
No one answered.
Because the horizon tore open.
A hairline crack. Violent. Silver. Singing.
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2. Something Tries to Step Through (It Shouldn't)
The crack widened.
Wind reversed.
Ink bled from the clouds.
The note in Ne Job's chest grew louder, resonating with the crack as though they were… connected.
Ne Job whimpered.
"Qi-Yun… am I supposed to feel like my ribcage is tuning itself?!"
Qi-Yun placed a steadying hand on his shoulder.
"That is resonance feedback."
"That tells me NOTHING!"
"It means the thing emerging is reacting to you."
"That tells me WORSE THINGS!"
From inside the crack, a blurred silhouette shifted—humanoid, tall, wrapped in flowing strands of luminous thread.
Arden whispered, "What… is that?"
The Judge's shards whirled defensively.
"Nothing from this layer. Or any stable one."
Yue's breath hitched.
"My visions… I've seen that shape before."
The crack pulsed.
Sang.
Ne Job screamed.
"MAKE IT STOP!"
The silhouette stepped forward—
And the crack slammed shut.
Silence.
Not relief.
The calm before a problem decides to arrive somewhere else.
Qi-Yun exhaled shakily.
"That was a probe."
Ne Job blinked. "A what?"
"A scout," Qi-Yun said grimly. "The Singing Thread wanted to locate something."
Arden's eyes widened. "Locate… Ne Job."
Ne Job shriveled.
"WHY DOES EVERYTHING WANT TO LOCATE ME?!"
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3. The Judge Declares Something Horrible
The Shard Court Judge extended a hand toward Ne Job. A shard hovered inches from his chest, scanning.
Glowing glyphs spiraled across its surface.
Her expression darkened.
Her shards froze.
Then rearranged themselves into a battle formation.
"This confirms it."
"Confirms WHAT?!" Ne Job yelled.
The Judge looked at him like a teacher informing a student they had broken not the rules, but the desk, the floor, and the dimension beneath it.
"Intern Ne Job," she announced, "your fate thread has begun echoing a Tier-Zero Origin."
Arden gasped.
Yue staggered.
Ne Job fainted internally.
"What is—Tier Zero?!" he stuttered.
Qi-Yun grimaced.
"It means it predates the laws of Heaven."
Ne Job screamed into the sky.
"I DIDN'T EVEN PREDATE BREAKFAST!"
Qi-Yun ignored him.
"This is worse than I expected."
The Judge spoke sharply:
"If the Singing Thread finds you fully, it will attempt to overwrite your existence."
Ne Job squeaked. "Overwrite?? Like… like… patch notes??"
"More like deletion and replacement."
Ne Job dropped to his knees.
"I don't want to be replaced! I LIKE BEING ME! I WORKED HARD AT IT!"
Qi-Yun pinched the bridge of his nose.
"We must relocate. Immediately."
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4. They Try to Leave (The World Disagrees)
Qi-Yun gestured, summoning a teleportation sigil beneath their feet.
Nothing happened.
He frowned.
"Strange."
Arden tested the wind.
"The air feels… blocked."
Yue closed her eyes.
"The singing thread left a residue. Like a seal."
Ne Job flailed both arms.
"So we CAN'T leave??"
Qi-Yun nodded. "Not without destabilizing the entire area."
Ne Job jabbed a finger at him.
"Then DESTABILIZE IT!"
"Ne Job," Qi-Yun sighed, "if I destabilize the zone, we will be scattered across twelve incompatible dimensions."
Ne Job froze mid-flail.
"…I withdraw my request."
A tremor rolled across the courtyard.
Something beneath the ground groaned.
Yue felt a pulse—sharp, cold, spiraling upward through the stone.
"It left… something behind," she whispered.
Qi-Yun stepped in front of her. "Where?"
Yue pointed downward.
The stone floor cracked open.
A spiraling mark glowed inside—a symbol of interlocking threads forming an eye.
Arden cursed.
The Judge's voice dropped an octave.
"Tracking Sigil. From beyond the Veins."
Ne Job screamed again.
"WHY WOULD ANYONE TRACK ME?! I'M NOT EVEN INTERESTING!"
Qi-Yun gave him a flat look.
"That is incorrect."
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5. Ne Job Does the One Thing He Probably Shouldn't
The sigil pulsed.
Sang.
And the vibration matched the one in Ne Job's chest.
He stumbled forward involuntarily.
"Hey—HEY—STOP MOVING," Arden shouted.
"I'M NOT MOVING—MY BODY IS MOVING ME!"
Instinct—terrible, cosmic instinct—pulled him toward the sigil.
Qi-Yun grabbed him. "Do not engage."
"But it's—It's humming at me!"
"It is bait," Qi-Yun said. "Ignore it."
"I CAN'T IGNORE ANYTHING THAT HUMS!"
The humming grew louder.
Ne Job's eyes glazed, his hands glowing faintly with silver ink.
Qi-Yun swore under his breath—actual divine swearing.
Arden lunged to hold Ne Job down.
Yue grabbed his face with both hands.
"Ne Job—LOOK AT ME."
His eyes flickered.
"Yue… it's calling. It wants me to—"
"No," she snapped. "Listen to me. Not it."
The sigil screeched, furious.
A beam of threadlight shot upward—
And Ne Job instinctively raised a hand.
Qi-Yun shouted, "DON'T—"
Too late.
Ne Job touched the beam.
The world shattered into white.
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6. Ne Job's Mind Goes Somewhere It Shouldn't
He found himself standing in a blank, echoing expanse—neither sky nor ground, just a horizonless white canvas.
Then he heard it:
A voice singing.
But the singing wasn't musical.
It was mechanical. Precise. Like a loom weaving reality itself.
"—jo…b…"
Ne Job screamed at the top of his lungs:
"NOPE! NO THANK YOU! I DON'T KNOW YOU!"
The voice hummed again.
"—return—"
"RETURN WHERE?! I'M ALREADY HERE!"
The white space rippled.
A second silhouette appeared—the same tall, thread-wrapped figure from the horizon crack.
It leaned closer.
Threads unfurled from its face like hair made of starlight.
No features.
No eyes.
Just a mask of shifting strands.
"—found—"
Ne Job backed up, trembling.
"No. No. You didn't find anything! I'm unfound! I'm VERY unfound!"
The figure extended a hand.
Threadlight pulsed.
Ne Job felt his fate thread yank toward it—like a leash.
"—return—home—"
Ne Job completely lost it.
"NO. I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH A WHISPERING STRING GHOST."
The figure tilted its head, confused by the defiance.
"—noncompliant—"
Ne Job screamed:
"I'VE BEEN NONCOMPLIANT MY ENTIRE LIFE AND I'M NOT STOPPING NOW!"
A crack of silver erupted from his chest.
The world inverted—
And he was blasted back into reality.
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7. Reality Reconstitutes (Unwillingly)
Ne Job hit the ground face-first.
Qi-Yun caught him just before he rebounded like a rubber stamp.
"Breathe," Qi-Yun said.
Ne Job wheezed. "NO. I REFUSE. AIR IS A SCAM."
Arden leaned over him. "What happened?!"
Ne Job trembled.
"I—I saw it. The singing thing. It talked to me. It wanted me to 'return.'"
Yue's blood ran cold.
"What did you do?"
Ne Job swallowed.
"I said no."
"…and?"
He lifted one shaky hand.
Smoke curled off his fingertips—silver smoke.
Arden whispered, "He burned the sigil."
Everyone looked.
The tracking mark was gone—scorched out of existence.
Qi-Yun's eyes widened for the first time in centuries.
"That," he murmured, "should not be possible."
The Judge stepped closer, expression unreadable.
"Intern Ne Job…"
He braced for judgment.
Instead, she whispered:
"What are you?"
Ne Job burst into tears.
"I DON'T KNOW AND I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!"
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8. Yue Feels the Thread Shift
Yue placed a hand over her heart.
The singing inside Ne Job's thread—
It hadn't vanished.
It had changed.
Deepened.
Softened.
And something terrifying dawned on her.
"…It wasn't trying to consume him," she whispered.
Qi-Yun turned sharply. "Explain."
Yue looked at Ne Job, shaking and ink-burned.
"It was trying to… welcome him."
Everyone froze.
Ne Job screamed into the sky one last time:
"I DON'T WANT TO BE WELCOMED BY ANYTHING COSMIC!"
The wind carried the singing away.
But the thread inside him remained warm.
Waiting.
Calling.
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END OF CHAPTER 199