One Kick Girl — Chapter 82: "The Sweatshop of Sound"
POV: Raon
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Raon knew the moment she walked through the warehouse doors that she had made a mistake.
Not a life-ruining mistake.
Not a "Shion accidentally turned the fridge into a speaker" mistake.
A this place obliterates hope mistake.
She stared into a vast industrial floor, lit by flickering fluorescent tubes. Rows of workers hunched over machines that looked like sewing machines, but instead of thread they fed in… vinyl records? Every press brought a sharp "K-tchak!" and every "K-tchak!" produced a puff of neon powder that hung in the air like toxic confetti.
"This," the supervisor said proudly, "is Sweatshop Beatworks. Where remixes are born."
Raon blinked. "That's not how music works."
"It is," he replied. "When you don't want to pay royalties."
Shion's eyes shimmered with horrified fascination. "So this is where all those cursed TikTock audio remixes come from…"
A worker raised his hand, trembling. "Supervisor? My remix machine just spat out a mashup of 'Baby Shark' and Mongolian throat singing. It won't stop vibrating."
Supervisor didn't even look up from his datapad. "Label it as 'global EDM fusion' and ship to Indonesia."
Raon whispered, "How is this legal?"
Supervisor laughed. "Legal? We're sponsored by Baron Silence himself. We're not illegal— we're essential infrastructure."
The temperature in the room dropped three degrees. Even Raon's ponytail twitched.
Baron Silence.
DJ of the Underworld.
Patron Saint of Noise Pollution.
Raon's second-least favorite enemy.
(First was still the vending machine that stole her breakfast money.)
---
They followed the supervisor deeper into the factory. The machines got louder. The fumes denser. And the remixes… worse.
A shrieking siren blasted the far-left corner. Workers ran in panic. A robotic arm flailed wildly, slapping stacks of vinyl into a flaming bin.
"Malfunction in Remix Station 3!" someone screamed.
The speaker above them bellowed:
> "EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. UNAUTHORIZED BEYONCÉ-RICKROLL HYBRID."
Raon recoiled. "Who even thinks of that?!"
Supervisor groaned. "We don't think. We sample. Thinking gets you sued."
Shion tugged Raon's sleeve. "Look over there."
In a glass enclosure sat a monstrous machine, chrome-plated, glowing with malicious purple LED lighting. Its belts moved in ways that defied geometry. Instead of feeding it records, workers slid in… headphones.
"Ahh," Supervisor purred. "Our crown jewel — the Loop Reaper. It extracts audio soul."
Audio soul.
Raon's eyelid twitched hard enough to kick someone.
"Give me a demo," she said.
Shion grabbed her shoulders. "You don't want a demo."
"I absolutely want a demo."
Supervisor nodded to a worker. The worker inserted a pair of cute pink cat-ear headphones.
The Loop Reaper began to hum. Then pulse. Then sing.
The music that oozed from its speakers was not music. It was a eldritch chorus of a thousand sound clips: anime girl moans, subway platform announcements, baby laughter, and occasional dolphin screams.
Shion clapped her hands over her ears.
Raon did the same, but closed fists.
"TURN IT OFF!" Raon shouted.
Supervisor waved casually. "We can't. It's feeding."
Raon cracked her knuckles.
---
She dove forward with a battle roar and delivered a clean, righteous, universe-stabilizing—
KICK.
Straight into the Loop Reaper's core.
The machine folded like a cheap omelet. Sparks exploded. The warehouse lights flickered. The remix tables hissed like angry demons.
Workers cheered.
Supervisor screamed.
The emergency alarm blared:
> "CRITICAL FAILURE! CRITICAL FAILURE! LOOP REAPER SOUL HAS BEEN UNLEASHED—"
A swirling orb of neon sound erupted from the wreckage. It coalesced into a humanoid form, glitching like a corrupted video file. Its voice was every remix ever made, whispered at once:
"WE ARE DJ BLOOP.
WE ARE THE UNLOOPED.
WHO DAUGHTER OF THE KICK HAS SET US FREE?"
Raon raised her hand awkwardly. "Uh… hi?"
The entity floated closer. Its eyes pulsed like nightclub strobes. She braced to kick again.
Instead, it bowed.
"THE ONE WHO UNLOOPED SHALL BECOME OUR MASTER."
Raon blinked once.
Then twice.
Shion fell to her knees, hands clapped over her face. "Raon… you just gained a remix demon."
Raon whispered, "Can I return it?"
DJ Bloop screamed:
"NO REFUNDS."