1. The First Rule of Being Unseen: Nothing Is Automatic Anymore
The first thing Ne Job noticed was the silence.
Not peaceful silence. The wrong kind.
No task pings. No priority flares. No passive guidance whispering you should be elsewhere right now.
He stood in the main corridor holding a cup of tea that had not been requisitioned, approved, or logged.
"…Did I just steal this?" he muttered.
Yue watched him carefully.
"The system didn't stop you."
Ne Job stared at the cup.
"…That's new."
He took a sip.
Nothing exploded.
Which somehow made him more nervous.
---
2. Doors No Longer Know Him
They reached a restricted hallway.
Yue swiped her clearance badge.
The door opened.
Ne Job followed—
—and walked straight into an invisible barrier.
Thunk.
He staggered back.
"…Ow."
Yue grimaced. "Still blocked."
"But the system doesn't see me."
"It sees space," Yue corrected. "And space has rules."
Ne Job rubbed his nose.
"So I exist just enough to be inconvenient."
"Yes."
"…That tracks."
Qi-Yun's voice echoed from behind them.
"Welcome to manual reality."
---
3. Qi-Yun's Warning (Which Is Not Reassuring)
They regrouped in an unused office—one that still smelled faintly of forgotten ambition.
Qi-Yun leaned against the desk.
"From this point on," he said, "anything you do is deniable."
Ne Job blinked.
"Deniable… by me, or by them?"
"Yes."
Yue crossed her arms. "So no protection. No fallback."
Qi-Yun nodded.
"No system flags. No escalation buffers. No retroactive justification."
Ne Job swallowed.
"…If I mess up."
"You will not be corrected," Qi-Yun said calmly. "You will be erased."
Ne Job forced a laugh.
"Haha. That's… very motivating."
Qi-Yun met his eyes.
"I am not joking."
The room felt colder.
---
4. The Second Rule: People Will Still Come
They didn't even make it ten minutes.
A senior clerk slipped into the room, pale and sweating.
"I—I was told not to speak to you," she whispered, eyes darting.
Ne Job sighed.
"And yet."
She shoved a data-slate into his hands.
"Luck Cascade forming in District Twelve. The system keeps normalizing it. But people are losing everything."
Yue stiffened.
"That district is marked low-impact."
The clerk nodded miserably.
"Which means Oversight won't intervene until it's catastrophic."
Ne Job stared at the slate.
"…And you came to me."
The clerk didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
---
5. Doing the Right Thing Quietly
Ne Job worked fast.
Not with commands. Not with authority.
He traced the contradiction manually—cross-checking probabilities, adjusting variables just enough to break the loop.
No alarms. No approval chains.
Just… correction.
The cascade eased.
Slowly. Gently.
A miracle done at whisper volume.
The slate dimmed.
Resolved.
The clerk exhaled shakily.
"…It stopped."
Ne Job handed the slate back.
"Tell no one."
She nodded.
Then paused.
"…Thank you."
She left.
The system never noticed.
Yue looked at Ne Job.
"You just saved thousands of lives."
He shrugged weakly.
"…And it didn't even count."
"That's what scares me," Yue said.
---
6. The System Responds (By Watching Everyone Else)
An hour later, surveillance tightened.
Not on Ne Job.
On everyone around him.
Access logs spiked. Background audits rolled out. Minor clerks were suddenly flagged for procedural anomalies.
Yue slammed a report onto the desk.
"They're circling you indirectly."
Qi-Yun nodded.
"Oversight cannot see him. So it will map his shadow."
Ne Job winced.
"…I'm a hazard to my coworkers."
Qi-Yun did not deny it.
---
7. The Third Rule: Don't Be Seen Helping
They moved Ne Job.
Not officially.
Just… quietly.
An abandoned processing wing. Outdated terminals. Paper backups.
Yue followed, furious.
"This is exile."
Qi-Yun shook his head.
"No. This is insulation."
Ne Job sat on the edge of a desk, legs dangling.
"…So I help from the shadows."
"Yes," Qi-Yun said. "And you do not intervene publicly. Ever."
Ne Job frowned.
"What if something big happens?"
Qi-Yun's gaze hardened.
"Then Heaven will learn how expensive ignoring you is."
That answer didn't comfort him at all.
---
8. Ne Job Realizes the Pattern
Late shift.
Dim lights.
Stacks of quiet problems.
Ne Job paused mid-correction.
"…Yue."
She looked up.
"The system isn't malfunctioning."
Yue stiffened.
"What?"
"It's adapting," Ne Job said slowly. "It's learning what not to look at."
Qi-Yun watched him carefully.
"The system is optimizing around you," Ne Job continued. "Which means…"
"…Eventually," Yue whispered, "it won't need you."
Ne Job nodded.
"…Or it'll decide I'm the inefficiency."
Silence pressed in.
---
9. A Message That Should Not Exist
A terminal flickered.
Just once.
A single line of text appeared—no header, no origin.
> YOU ARE BEING OBSERVED BY ENTITIES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE REGISTRATION.
Ne Job stared.
"…That's new."
Qi-Yun's expression darkened.
"Those are not Oversight processes."
Yue's blood ran cold.
"…Then who?"
The text updated.
> FUNCTIONAL ANOMALIES ATTRACT PREDATORS.
The screen went dead.
---
10. End Beat: Yue Makes a Decision
Later, after Ne Job fell asleep at his desk, Yue stood alone in the corridor.
She looked at the blank space on the roster.
At the problems quietly resolving around it.
At the system tightening everywhere else.
She clenched her fists.
"…They'll use him up."
A realization settled heavy in her chest.
If Ne Job stayed unregistered—
He would never be protected.
Only exploited. Or erased.
Yue turned, already planning.
"…Then I'll have to make him visible."
Far above, something ancient shifted.
Not Oversight.
Something that hunted what didn't belong.
---
END OF CHAPTER 211