The abandoned conference room on the 47th floor smelled of stale coffee and impending doom. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like dying insects.
Dilbert stood at one end of the long table, tie crooked, glasses slightly askew, clutching a half-empty mug that read “World’s Most Average Engineer.” Across from him, Light Yagami sat perfectly composed, black notebook resting unopened in front of him, pen held loosely between elegant fingers. The Death Note.
Neither had spoken for almost two minutes. The silence was the sound of two predators deciding whether the other was worth the calories.
“You know,” Dilbert finally said, voice flat, “I didn’t even want to be here. The pointy-haired boss scheduled this ‘strategic alignment meeting.’ I just wanted to finish debugging the legacy payroll system before the fiscal quarter closed.”
Light’s lips curved into the thinnest of smiles. “And yet here you are. Facing Kira.” He tapped the notebook once, softly. “Most people beg by now.”
Dilbert shrugged. “Most people have something worth begging for.”
High above them, a small black drone hovered silently near the ceiling vent, its tiny camera lens whirring as it observed—and possibly streamed—the chaos to some unknown viewer. The device was matte black, no bigger than a fist, with a faint red LED blinking intermittently.
From out of nowhere—perhaps a glitch in the fabric of reality itself—two voices boomed into the room, as if broadcast from an invisible PA system. Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross, the legendary WWE commentators, materialized in spectral form at the edge of the table, mics in hand, looking as surprised as anyone.
“Oh my God, King! We’ve got a slobberknocker brewing here!” Jim Ross exclaimed, his Oklahoma drawl cutting through the tension like a hot knife through butter. “Dilbert versus Light Yagami—it’s engineer versus egomaniac, and bah gawd, somebody’s gonna get their spreadsheet audited!”
“Puppies! I love puppies!” Jerry Lawler yelped irrelevantly, then adjusted his crown. “But seriously, JR, look at that notebook. Is that a prop or what? This kid thinks he’s writing fanfic, but Dilbert’s got that coffee mug—deadly weapon in corporate America!”
Light opened the Death Note with deliberate slowness. The pages rustled like dry leaves. “Dilbert… last name?”
“Doesn’t matter. You won’t get the chance to finish writing it.”
Light raised an eyebrow. “Bold for a man whose greatest achievement is surviving another pointless status meeting.”
He began to write.
The pen moved with surgical precision. First stroke: D. Second: I. Third—
Dilbert lunged across the table.
It wasn’t heroic. It wasn’t graceful. It was the desperate scramble of a man who once missed three consecutive deadlines because the network printer ate his TPS reports. He tackled Light, chair tipping, notebook skidding. The pen clattered to the carpet.
“Business is about to pick up!” JR bellowed. “Dilbert with the takedown—bah gawd, that’s gotta hurt!”
“Look at those moves, JR! It’s like watching a cubicle warrior versus a pretty boy villain. I give it five stars for awkwardness!” Lawler cackled.
They rolled. Light was taller, younger, trained in martial arts he never needed to use until now. He drove an elbow into Dilbert’s ribs. Dilbert wheezed but refused to let go, clinging like a barnacle on a sinking ship.
“You think… physical violence… changes anything?” Light hissed, trying to pry Dilbert’s fingers off the notebook. “You’re already dead. I wrote the first name. Forty seconds.”
Dilbert’s eyes widened behind smudged lenses. “Forty…?”
He looked down. Light had indeed started “Dilbert” in neat block letters. The rest was blank.
Thirty seconds.
Dilbert did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed the nearest object—a thick three-ring binder labeled “Q3 Process Improvement Initiatives”—and brought it down on Light’s head with the full force of a thousand unread memos.
Light staggered. The notebook slipped from his grasp.
Twenty seconds.
Dilbert snatched it. He flipped to the page with his half-written name and tried to tear it out. The page was unnaturally tough. He clawed at it, fingernails shredding.
Fifteen seconds.
Light recovered, grabbed Dilbert by the collar, and slammed him against the wall. “You can’t destroy it. You can’t erase it. You’re finished.”
Dilbert’s vision was tunneling. Heart hammering. He could already feel the invisible timer counting down. But then, mid-struggle, his eyes flicked upward to the drone. “Hey, is that a… drone? Are we being spied on by HR or something?”
Ten seconds.
Then the door creaked open.
A small, perfectly groomed dog trotted in. White fur, glasses, the kind of smirk that suggested he had already calculated the compound interest on your inevitable demise.
Dogbert.
He regarded the scene with academic disinterest: Light pinning a gasping Dilbert, Death Note on the floor, seconds ticking toward heart attack. The commentators hovered nearby, still yapping.
Dogbert sighed the sigh of a being who had seen every flavor of human stupidity and found them all mildly entertaining.
“Really, Dilbert?” he said, voice dripping with contempt. “You let a teenager with a magic diary get the drop on you? I taught you better than that.”
Five seconds.
Dogbert padded over, hopped onto the table, and delicately picked up the fallen pen in his teeth. He carried it to the Death Note, flipped to a blank page, and—using only his paws and uncanny dexterity—began to write.
Light froze. “What are you—”
Dogbert finished the entry in seconds.
Light Yagami
Heart attack
But first, he realizes he has been outsmarted by a dog.
Light’s eyes widened in genuine, unfiltered horror—the same expression he once reserved for L.
He clutched his chest.
The notebook fell from Dilbert’s numb fingers.
Light staggered backward, mouth working silently. He looked at Dogbert. At the notebook. At Dilbert.
Then he collapsed.
“Bah gawd, King! The dog just booked the finish! That’s gotta be the greatest swerve in history!”
“I’m speechless, JR. A dog with a Death Note? I’d buy that pay-per-view!”
The room was quiet again, except for Dilbert’s ragged breathing and the soft tap-tap of Dogbert’s tail against the table. The drone still hovered, its lens fixed on the aftermath.
Dilbert slid down the wall until he was sitting on the carpet. “You… you just…”
Dogbert hopped down and sat primly in front of him. “Saved your worthless life. Yes. You’re welcome. Now, about my consulting fee…”
Dilbert stared at the body of the self-proclaimed god of the new world, then at the small dog who had just written that god’s obituary. The commentators faded away as mysteriously as they’d appeared, their voices echoing into nothingness.
He exhaled slowly.
“You know,” he said, “I think I’m going to take the rest of the day off.”
Dogbert’s smirk widened.
“Good idea. The world doesn’t deserve you two days in a row.”
As they turned to leave, Dogbert paused and glanced up at the drone, his eyes narrowing with that signature mix of arrogance and mischief. “Whoever’s watching this pathetic stream—next time, send someone with actual talent. Or at least better snacks.”
They exited, the door clicking shut behind them.
In a dimly lit interdimensional bar that existed somewhere between realities—walls lined with glowing portals, patrons ranging from shadowy figures to tentacled aliens—a mysterious man sat hunched over a stool, nursing a heavy mug of beer. He stared at a holographic screen streaming the fight’s feed, chuckling wetly at Dogbert’s parting shot.
“I’ve got your snacks right here, pal!”
He grabbed his crotch with his free hand, then raised the mug in a sloppy toast to the empty air before taking a long, gurgling pull.
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