The Celestial Clockwork
Chapter 42: The Administrative Redefinition
Director Intern Ne Job chose the most immediate and dangerous structural-administrative risk: Risk of Administrative Mutiny (Option 3).
The mission to retrieve Nezha's Unruly Sister—the Engine of Conceptual Conflict—was a direct threat to the DUC's most crucial asset: Intern Yue's administrative rigidity. The introduction of a completely un-filed, volatile entity could cause her to have an administrative breakdown and file a Mandate of Self-Destruction for the entire department.
Ne Job looked directly at Intern Yue, who was already beginning to tremble as the Conceptual Entropy alarm continued its irritating whine.
"Intern Yue," Ne Job commanded, his voice sharp with professional necessity. "The introduction of pure, un-filed conflict threatens your very administrative function. You must immediately create a containment protocol for your own self-doubt."
Yue looked up, her fear of administrative failure warring with her terror of the un-filed. "Self-doubt is an unquantifiable conceptual variable, Archivist Intern! It cannot be filed or contained!"
"Then you must administrate the unquantifiable," Ne Job countered. "Draft an Emergency DUC Mandate requiring that any feeling of 'Administrative Failure' must be immediately reclassified as a 'Pre-emptive Risk Assessment' and filed under 'Conceptual Assets: Necessary Friction.'"
Yue's eyes cleared. The task was absurd, but it was a filing task. Her administrative compulsion instantly overrode her personal panic. She began to type furiously, creating an Administrative Alibi for her own sanity. The mutiny was averted by a preemptive, self-imposed bureaucratic mandate.
The Unruly One
The team located the Unruly One's conceptual signature in a swirling region of primordial, un-filed space beyond the Master Spool Junction. This space defied geometric and temporal stability—it was simply pure potential.
They found the Unruly One at the center: a vibrant, restless young woman crackling with raw, powerful energy. She was sitting atop a cloud, meticulously organizing a pile of broken concepts: Crude Justice, Unstable Love, and Apathetic Ambition.
"You've come for me," she said, her voice a low hum of irresistible conceptual friction. "I am the Engine of Conflict. I was un-filed because my purpose is to fight stability. You cannot contain me, and you certainly cannot file me."
"We don't wish to contain you, Unruly One," Ne Job stated, stepping forward with his most stable asset. "We wish to hire you. The universe is suffering from Conceptual Entropy. It is dying of administrative comfort. We need you to re-introduce the primal, necessary drive for conflict."
She looked intrigued. "You want me to cause trouble... as a job?"
"Precisely," Ne Job confirmed. "Princess Ling is offering you the official title of 'Special Consultant for Primal Conceptual Friction,' with full DUC access and an unlimited budget for destabilization events."
"An official, approved role for chaos," she mused. "That's a paradox I can enjoy."
However, Intern Nezha stepped forward, his structural integrity momentarily overwhelming his respect for Ne Job's plan. "I cannot allow this! My sister's volatility is a structural nightmare! To bring her into the DUC is to risk the perfect form of the entire organization!"
"You cannot speak of me, little brother," the Unruly One warned, her eyes flashing. "You sought to impose ultimate structure; I am the conceptual proof that ultimate structure requires ultimate opposition."
She stood up, and the entire primordial space began to shake, rejecting the stability of the conversation. "If you wish to hire me, Archivist Intern, you must first survive my initial Conceptual Prank. I shall prove my worth by challenging the very thing you hold most dear."
With a conceptual snap, she didn't attack the DUC; she attacked their paperwork.
The Protocol of Conflict—the 700-page document that ensured the stability of Yue and Nezha's contained infighting—suddenly vanished, replaced by a single, glowing administrative form.
The form read: 'MANDATE OF CONCEPTUAL AGREEMENT: Intern Yue and Intern Nezha must find a point of Absolute, Permanent, and Philosophical Agreement before the next temporal cycle or be Administratively Discharged.'
The DUC team was stunned. The Unruly One had replaced their engine of stable conflict with a demand for unstable, impossible peace.
Director Intern Ne Job has the Unruly One on board, but she has initiated her first act of internal chaos: forcing Intern Yue (Administrative Function) and Intern Nezha (Structural Form) to find Absolute, Permanent, and Philosophical Agreement or be fired. This is a deliberate, impossible paradox designed to collapse the DUC's core stability.