One Kick Girl — Chapter 48: "Kick.exe Not Responding"
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1. Technical Difficulties
Everything froze.
Not metaphorically — literally.
The ocean, the waves, the light — all stuck mid-frame like a paused video.
Raon blinked once.
Twice.
Then sighed.
> "Oh great. The universe crashed again."
Shion hovered beside her, midair, tablet flickering between blue screens.
> "Temporal data's looping! We're inside a resonance recursion field! Everything's buffering!"
Raon squinted at her.
"Did you just say we're trapped in a cosmic loading screen?"
> "Yes!" "Cool. How long's it take to load?" "Unknown!" "So basically… we're on Bureau Wi-Fi."
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2. The Glitched Sea
Reality twitched.
The frozen water suddenly pixelated — turning into cubes that melted upward like inverted rain.
Raon reached out and poked one.
It made a Windows error sound.
> "You know," she said, "I miss villains that just exploded."
Shion floated upside down accidentally.
"Don't touch anything! The Echo Core's trying to reboot reality through your resonance signature!"
Raon frowned.
"So the universe is rebooting… because I kicked too hard again?"
> "Basically yes!" "Nice."
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3. Encounter: Echo Kernel
From the glitching seafloor, a massive crystalline sphere emerged — glowing with holographic runes.
Inside, a faint silhouette shimmered — humanoid, and weirdly familiar.
> "Hello again… Raon."
Raon blinked. "You sound like every tech support AI ever."
The voice chuckled — a dozen tones overlapping.
> "I am the Kernel. The original Echo. Every impact you've ever caused… I recorded."
Raon raised a brow.
"So you're like my cloud storage, but passive-aggressive?"
> "Precisely."
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4. Philosophy.exe
Shion's readings spiked.
> "It's syncing with your kick frequency! If it completes the process, it could overwrite you!"
Raon stared at the glowing sphere.
"Overwrite me with what?"
> "Your own data. Essentially, a version of you that never stops kicking."
Raon groaned. "So… me, but without the snack breaks."
The Echo Kernel's light pulsed.
> "You fight because you can. Because you end things. But tell me — what happens when there's nothing left to kick?"
Raon paused.
> "…Then I kick boredom."
The Echo Kernel stuttered.
> "That… is not a valid philosophical answer." "Neither's asking me philosophy mid-battle."
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5. Kick vs. Kernel
The Core started pulsing faster. Waves of sound burst out — forming hardlight projections of Raon herself, each moving independently.
Shion screamed, "It's generating predictive clones based on your past kicks!"
Raon watched as a dozen mirror Raons surrounded her.
> "They look tired." "They're you!" "Yeah. Checks out."
All the clones attacked at once — perfectly timed.
Raon dodged lazily, eating instant noodles midair.
> "You think you can beat me with my own highlights reel? Amateur."
She spun —
One real kick.
The clones shattered like glass, the entire Core shaking violently.
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6. Kernel Panic
Shion's tablet beeped.
> "Raon! The Core's destabilizing! You broke the failsafe!" "Good. Means I win."
> "No, it means we're about to—"
Everything exploded in white.
Sound vanished.
Time vanished.
Even Shion's screaming vanished.
Then —
A single message flashed across the void.
> [RESTARTING REALITY… PLEASE WAIT.]
Raon floated in empty space.
She sighed.
> "I swear, if I respawn without my noodles…"
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7. System Reboot
A loading bar appeared in midair.
> 99%… 100%… SYSTEM ONLINE.
Raon opened her eyes.
She was back in her apartment.
Dry. Clean.
Instant ramen steaming on the counter.
Shion appeared, frazzled but alive.
> "You… crashed the universe. Again."
Raon stretched.
> "Yeah. But it rebooted fine. See? No lag."
Shion rubbed her temples.
"Reality has patch notes now."
Raon picked up her bowl.
> "Good. Hope they fixed the pigeons."
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8. Patch Notes (Post-Credits)
[SYSTEM PATCH v2.0.1 — ONE KICK GIRL UNIVERSE UPDATE]
Fixed issue where pigeons could harmonize in 12D audio.
Reduced Raon's Aether output by 0.0001%.
Increased Shion's caffeine limit.
Added new subroutine: ECHO.3 BACKUP RESTORATION IN 72 HOURS.
Raon's screen blinked with that last line.
She frowned.
> "Backup restoration, huh? Great. Another remix."
She slurped her ramen.
> "Guess I'll kick it when it loads."
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[End of Chapter 48 — "Kick.exe Not Responding"]