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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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TalonofAnathrax said:
Incidentally, don't many Leaf clans maintain their influence over civilian businesses through ownership of their debts? This could be interpreted as a direct attack against every single other clan in Leaf, which is a problem I'd expect Mari to spot. And that I should have thought of while reading the plan in the first place, but whatever.
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Doesn't the Merchant council exist to prevent this from happening?
 
eaglejarl said:
This update covered 4 days: 3 of research, one spent traveling with Cannai et al. @Velorien will be writing the Akane scene, although I'm not clear when.

XP AWARD: 11

Brevity XP: 4

Ami-style training XP: 3 (Only able to do training during the research days)

"GM had fun" XP: -4
  • -4 (4 days x 4 scenes total...honestly, this plan could easily have had far more than 4 scenes, but let's go with 4)
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Correction: XP SUFFICIENT LAUNCHING FOOM.EXE

[X] Training Hazou: FOOM
Shadow Clone 30 [189]
Save 2XP
 
Shrooms said:
Doesn't the Merchant council exist to prevent this from happening?
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Every clan whose finances we've seen has been doing it anyway.
And I thought the Merchant Council existed to stop Clans getting involved and directly outcompeting normal humans using their awesome ninja powers. IIRC it doesn't stop them from offering loans at all.

[X] Training Hazou: FOOM
 
@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Has anyone on the Estate at all kept track how much scrip we've printed and how it compares to our actual ryo coffers? Like, how much would a bank run cripple us?

Also, I assume that this whole scheme of printing money to pay everyone's everything takes more than a couple of days. Can we please include a panicked running to Gaku to stop the thing because Hazou just had a flash insight on the horror he just unleashed, also known as mass inflation of fiat currency?
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
Now that we're in a new cycle, I'll draw on my previous effortpost to make some meaningful votes for our SOP and other FOOM plans.

Starting off, we need to figure out if we want to do light overcharging when it helps us cast another clone. Reminder: overcharging lets us boost our effective chakra capacity by 5% but we need to visit Noburi to do it. This will be an alteration to the general-purpose SOP for the indefinite future.

[] Overcharging: No
[X] Overcharging: Yes

Next off, we need to decide what to do with Akane's training. We have enough XP to get her to 5 clones, which she can support normally, or 6 clones, which she can only support with overcharging. However, Akane does not have the skill columns to support moving Resolve up to 30, so we cannot yet afford to bring her to the six clone mark. Therefore, the current meaningful options are to bring her to 5 clones or to leave her where she is for now. I won't get into it here, but if anyone else wants to make a different plan that clears the way for Resolve 30, they're more than welcome to.

[] Training Akane: None

[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP)
Save 97 XP

Finally, we need to figure out Keiko's plan. Unlike Akane, she can support Resolve 30 with her columns, and she has a few options. She can stay at 4 clones, which she can support normally. She can move to 5 clones, which she can support on her own only with refills, or she can push all the way up to 7 clones by taking advantage of the current state of koi refills. Well, almost. She's just a couple dozen XP short of 7 clones, but we can push to 6 here and now and polish off 7 in a future cycle. The koi are only active for the next six weeks before they breed, but the extra clones should make up for the inefficiency of pushing SC 40 back. (see the effortpost for the full math). Note that the 5-clone path is dependent on the result of the overcharging vote, so keep an eye out to make sure we don't mismatch them.

[] Training Keiko: None

[] Training Keiko: 5 clones
Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP)
Save 155 XP

[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
Resolve 24 --> 30 (165 XP)
Save 68 XP
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[X] Overcharging: Yes
[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
[] Continue Previous Plan
[X] Training Hazou: FOOM

ONWARD TO THE REACTION POST:

eaglejarl said:
"I was a little restless." It had been a highlights book: The Sunset Racer, Hidan's butchery of the village, and the never-actually-seen deaths of Jiraiya and Shinji...who for some reason had died fighting back to back against swarms of Zabuzas with whirling red eyes and an army of demons. And then Jiraiya, Shinji, and Zabuza melded together into a six-armed, six-eyed monstrosity that towered into the sky and laughed down at Hazō, telling him how worthless he was and unworthy to wield the power he had been given.
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Hazou... Hazou probably needs therapy.

eaglejarl said:
"Sorry. Anyway, just in case I can't get that done in time I'm going to make her a book containing nice things that people have said about her."

"Excellent idea, sir. It will pair nicely with the one that Lord Noburi and Lady Nara are working on."

"...The what now?"

One eyebrow rose. "The Footsteps of Lady Gōketsu, sir? They've been working on it for at least a year now, although I gather it's going slowly since it requires working around a great deal of classified information while still maintaining a degree of coherence and accuracy."

"Oh."
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HAZOU: "I have an idea!"
NOBURI: "Late to the game, kid. We had the same idea over a year ago.'
HAZOU: "Kid? We're the same age!"
AKANE: "You're lucky you're cute."
KEIKO: "Yeah, he's a little oblivious when it comes to people."
AKANE: "You know it's true if Keiko's the one pointing it out."

eaglejarl said:
Takuo paused, leaning on his shovel for a moment to wipe the sweat off his face. He likely wouldn't have dared do such a thing back when he was a day laborer; most taskmasters didn't appreciate seeing their workers lazing about. The Gōketsu were much more tolerant and a little bit of indulgence could be risked. Also, come dark or death, he could not ignore what was happening in front of him. He leaned on his shovel and tapped Rik on the shoulder.

"What's going on there?" he asked his brother, pointing discreetly to where Lord Gōketsu was walking from the House to the path that lead to the seal research area. His torso was encircled in a rope harness and a dog was yanking on the other end of the rope, pulling in unpredictable directions and at unpredictable times. Lord Gōketsu was obviously trying to not be obvious about the effort he was expending on resisting this.
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Glad we're treating our employees like they're... you know. Human beings.

eaglejarl said:
Takuo gazed narrow-eyed at his younger brother. "That school is doing things to your head, Rik. You're talking fancy, like some kind of noble or something. All your 'norm' and 'outlier' stuff—what if someone hears you? They'll think you're putting on airs."

"I dunno, Tak. So far everyone at the school has been really nice about it. The teachers seem impressed that I want to learn this stuff."

"But all the time you're spending with your nose in those scrolls...you aren't working as much as you should, Rik. It dishonors the clan. What if they decide you're not worth the food you eat and they kick us out? Or worse."

"I don't think they will. They seem to really mean all this stuff. I think...I think that studying like this is honoring the clan. It seems to be what Lord Gōketsu wants. If it isn't, why did he make the school and insist we all go?"

"How should I know?! He's the weird one, according to you!"

Rik's eyes went wide. "Tak! Don't say such things! What if someone heard you?!"
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Maybe we should release an announcement? "A well educated mind is a blessing to the clan" or something similar, so that they understand that we view the pursuit of knowledge just as meaningful as physical demonstrations of honor/devoutness/loyalty? I suppose we could say something to the effect of "the work to expand your mind honors the clan just as much as [blah blah blah]." We'd have to workshop the wording with Mari, Keiko, and Akane (because Akane has a skill with meshing words to heart that Hazou finds hard to match, as per their Treetop Confession Scene).

Also: I'm both amused and saddened that they would think Hazou would be offended at being called weird. Because Hazou would probably be the first to acknowledge his own weirdness. But I can't fault them for it, of course. The Goketsu merely existing is probably something that outpaces their wildest dreams, and so they cling to their identity as Goketsu tightly and fear losing it --much like how someone who has gone through starvation may later feel a compulsion to hide food, or keep a pantry fully stocked, even though the food may expire before they can eat it.

I look forward to the first generation of Goketsu who will grow up living under our methods. They'll probably drive their parents spare ("you don't know how good you have it," and so on) but that's the point of it all.

eaglejarl said:
"Oh?" Hazō prompted, conserving his breath for running. The run from the Grassy Hills pack's territory to that of the Wide River pack was long and exhausting. Cannai had asked, with exquisite manners and not at all laughing behind his paw about it, whether Hazō would prefer to simply go home and be reverse-summoned when the dogs arrived at their destination. Hazō's pride as a man, a ninja, a Gōketsu Clan ninja, a Summoner, and a Clan Lord had, obviously, demanded that he brush the idea off and insist on coming along. Which he had done, with Cannai's twinkly-eyed yet solemn acceptance. Canduman had griped not so quietly about how Hazō would just slow them down, leaving Hazō no choice but to keep up without complaining. It was requiring everything he had in him, and he had the sneaking suspicion that Cannai was still holding the pace down for his benefit.
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We should probably level athletics or something similar. Combat applications aside, we're being shown up by Cannai and simply cannot stand! We're supposed to be the evolutionary long distance runners!

eaglejarl said:
"Indeed," Cannai said. "Oh, there's a rocky patch up ahead. Hard to see under the grass. Mind your footing."

Hazō gritted his teeth and said nothing. No one had told him to mind his footing since he entered the Academy. No one had needed to.
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Yup, gauntlet thrown. Time for Hazou to start training, this challenge cannot go unanswered!

eaglejarl said:
"But, they weren't perfect. There were undercurrents of strife among the pack, and had been since its founding. The details don't matter, but the key point is that the conflict had been brewing for generations and it was never addressed. Most members of the pack swept it under the rug, as Kakashi used to say. Addressing it would be too difficult, and so no one did. Eventually, it broke out into actual fighting, and several pack members were killed. I put a stop to the actual bloodshed, but it was too late. The survivors no longer recognized one another as members of Steel Hills, or even as worthy of respect. Both sides laid claim to the name and neither would yield. And thus I declared the Steel Hills pack extinct. I divided them up, took the ones that were not beyond saving and spread them out as widely as possible among the other packs. Those who were deepest in their fervor I formed into a single new pack and gave them precise boundaries, with explicit orders to never cross those boundaries. It has served to contain their poison, for now, but it lingers in my mind. It is a delay, not a solution.
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If our next arc isn't going to be chasing Mizuki's employer (which I bet is Orochimaru... snake that he is, I'm willing to bet that he had a mole or two left in Leaf even after his banishment), then I'd like to spend it trying to bridge the feral Steel Hill Pack with the rest of the Dog Clan. Maybe we can get a Steel Hill dog summon to serve as a sort of ambassador? First steps in a reconciliation between the two groups?

eaglejarl said:
"Yes, Summoner. Manners. Manners are codified expectations. As such they are the clearest way to signal your feelings towards another dog. Normal communication can be hard to follow but the codified behaviors we call 'manners' are standardized so that we can all understand what is being said. When you offer to share your kill are you sincere? Perfunctory? Willing? If you are casual about it, does your tone suggest that is it because you are among friends and there is no need, or because you are deliberately offering disrespect?" He tossed his head. "Nothing between two individuals is ever completely transparent, but standardized forms help."
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Cannai is wise. Or at least, he's deeply philosophical. I wonder if he has always been such, or if Cannai was made to become so by the burdens of Leadership. If Kagome is true about the origins of the Summoning Clans (and I suspect that he is), then Cannai might've also been made to become introspective by the pain of banishment.

eaglejarl said:
"And thus I am schooled on brevity," Cannai rumbled, tongue lolling in amusement.
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Cannai is also a dear and makes me smile ^.^

eaglejarl said:
"Yes. The young man came onto the territory of another pack unannounced and attempted to wheedle his lover into departing without word to her family." Cannai huffed in amusement. "I suspect that we shall find the young lady had been stepping over to the Fallen Stones pack with a similar lack of announcement. However, it appears that he is the one who first raised the possibility of absconding."
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Huh, so they tried to elope? Not the brightest decision... then again, given how large the Dog's territory seems to be, the young couple might've been able to actually do it. Still, given the Dog Clan's dynamic, it seems like he tried to get her to do the equivalent of an elopement and go MIA. The elopement I can understand, the MIA is a little harder to explain away. Maybe it's a Romeo and Juliet, feuding families sort of thing?

I'll be honest, I don't really grok wedding ceremonies and the institution of marriage in general (not long term relationships or monogamy, just marriage) but it does, genuinely, sound like the Dog Clan's perspective on such things are a lot more reasonable than our own. Not sure what it says about me, personally, that I vibe with a nonhuman culture's take on romance, but here we are.

eaglejarl said:
Success! And yes, you got identical rolls on the last two days of research. Note: Some of those rerolls might or might not have been essential. My policy is that rolls of -9 or less always get rerolled unless Hazō is certain that it didn't matter, and rolls of -6 get rerolled under most circumstances. Long story short: If you had higher Calligraphy then Hazō would have been comfortable using more of the blanks that weren't his absolute best work (i.e. where he rolled poorly) and it would have saved you 2 FP.
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I think EJ's telling us to level our Calig. And if I'm noticing the signs, then this probably has all the subtlety of a rockethammer to the nose.
 
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eaglejarl said:
The older man sat mute, blinking in shock. After a moment, he rallied. "I mean...we can certainly do it, sir. I doubt we have the actual ryō on hand, but our scrip is as good as ryō at nearly all merchants in Leaf. I'll have the printers set up another run."
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What the actual duck just happened?. Nononono- the currency is less than a single year old and the clan hasn't even set up any time-shifting facility loans. Other clans are actively hunting for ways to end the Gouketsu, and pulling a de Gaulle would leave it effectively enslaved. Peg that sheet with 100% reserves until everything's established.

Can't we just have another Kaiju attack rather than the clan of foreigners led by a serial traitor be responsible for a national financial crises right after the Hokage explained how he was using them to engineer one in Mist[/I]

-actually, are we able to grow some of those gold beans?
 
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Rafin said:
@TalonofAnathrax @RandomOTP You guys might be laughing, but this could ruin us and make eaglejarl very happy to have our clan be poor and scrapping at dirt for survival again.
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*shrug*
The QMs said that we had enough money to do anything short of buying our own country, and the plan included a Mari-sanity check (who's been suberting the Leaf economy as an idle pastime).

Besides, not much we can do about it now. The time to voice concerns would've been a few days ago, during the planning phase. If this does make a bad turn, then it'll happen, and all we can do is try to come up with money-quests (Mari and Salterns aside, Lalokein has a few ideas, from what I understand).
 
Rafin said:
Do those two even know anything at all about the intricate functionality of fiat currency? Because IRL multiple nations did not until shit hit the fan. Massively.


...We are soooo fucked.
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Back when the 'grow plants made of gold' process was sold to Mist, Asuma specifically mentioned that he hoped the Wakahisa would cause an inflation problem for them under the guise of a gift, so I expect that the concept is known to some degree or another.
RandomOTP said:
[X] Overcharging: Yes
[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
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Can I ask you to quote the post where those plans originated, and/or copy the details of the training plans, so that when voting closes Velorien can find what you're referring to? Here it is for reference:
Inferno Vulpix said:
Now that we're in a new cycle, I'll draw on my previous effortpost to make some meaningful votes for our SOP and other FOOM plans.

Starting off, we need to figure out if we want to do light overcharging when it helps us cast another clone. Reminder: overcharging lets us boost our effective chakra capacity by 5% but we need to visit Noburi to do it. This will be an alteration to the general-purpose SOP for the indefinite future.

[] Overcharging: No
[X] Overcharging: Yes

Next off, we need to decide what to do with Akane's training. We have enough XP to get her to 5 clones, which she can support normally, or 6 clones, which she can only support with overcharging. However, Akane does not have the skill columns to support moving Resolve up to 30, so we cannot yet afford to bring her to the six clone mark. Therefore, the current meaningful options are to bring her to 5 clones or to leave her where she is for now. I won't get into it here, but if anyone else wants to make a different plan that clears the way for Resolve 30, they're more than welcome to.

[] Training Akane: None

[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP)
Save 97 XP

Finally, we need to figure out Keiko's plan. Unlike Akane, she can support Resolve 30 with her columns, and she has a few options. She can stay at 4 clones, which she can support normally. She can move to 5 clones, which she can support on her own only with refills, or she can push all the way up to 7 clones by taking advantage of the current state of koi refills. Well, almost. She's just a couple dozen XP short of 7 clones, but we can push to 6 here and now and polish off 7 in a future cycle. The koi are only active for the next six weeks before they breed, but the extra clones should make up for the inefficiency of pushing SC 40 back. (see the effortpost for the full math). Note that the 5-clone path is dependent on the result of the overcharging vote, so keep an eye out to make sure we don't mismatch them.

[] Training Keiko: None

[] Training Keiko: 5 clones
Resolve 24 --> 27 (78 XP)
Save 155 XP

[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
Resolve 24 --> 30 (165 XP)
Save 68 XP

P.S. Hazou is only 9 XP away from SC 30, so we'll soon be starting him on FOOM as well, but we're not quite ready to make a training plan for him this cycle. Maybe we'll finish that bit off at the same time as we get Keiko up to 7 clones.
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As for myself, same vote spread:
[X] Overcharging: Yes
[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
[X] Continue Previous Plan
[X] Training Hazou: FOOM

edit: better training plans came out, so I switched to them.

Incidentally, is it possible to combine Yamanaka XP with normal XP for purchasing a level of Resolve? If so we can afford the 7-clone plan for Keiko here and now, but if not we'll have to wait another couple chapters.
 
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Inferno Vulpix said:
Back when the 'grow plants made of gold' process was sold to Mist, Asuma specifically mentioned that he hoped the Wakahisa would cause an inflation problem for them under the guise of a gift, so I expect that the concept is known to some degree or another.

Can I ask you to quote the post where those plans originated, and/or copy the details of the training plans, so that when voting closes Velorien can find what you're referring to? Here it is for reference:

As for myself, same vote spread:
[X] Overcharging: Yes
[X] Training Akane: 5 clones
[X] Training Keiko: 6 clones
[X] Continue Previous Plan
[X] Training Hazou: FOOM

Incidentally, is it possible to combine Yamanaka XP with normal XP for purchasing a level of Resolve? If so we can afford the 7-clone plan for Keiko here and now, but if not we'll have to wait another couple chapters.
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Maybe best to not buy Keiko levels yet in that case, so that Yamanaka XP can be spent on the cheap, lowest level of Resolve rather than needing to re-earn all the XP. But it seems intuitive to me that you can buy a level of Resolve with a mix of Y-tech+normal XP @eaglejarl @Velorien ?
 
faflec said:
Correction: XP SUFFICIENT LAUNCHING FOOM.EXE

[X] Training Hazou: FOOM
Shadow Clone 30 [189]
Save 2XP
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Slight correction: You quoted that during the roughly 30 seconds that it said 11 XP, before I realized I was double counting. 11 is your total for the chapter, not the base.

The sequence went like this:

T=0) 8XP + 4 - 4 <= chapter freshly posted
T=1) @Shrooms in Discord: "Hey, did the Ami-style training work?"
T=1.5) me: Damn.
T=2) 11XP + 4 - 4 + 3 (AST)
T=2.000000000001) @faflec quotes the update
T=2.5) me: Damn. Should have been at the bottom, not the bottom and the top
T=3) 8 XP + 4 - 4 + 3

Rafin said:
@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Has anyone on the Estate at all kept track how much scrip we've printed and how it compares to our actual ryo coffers? Like, how much would a bank run cripple us?
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Check chapter 350.

Rafin said:
Also, I assume that this whole scheme of printing money to pay everyone's everything takes more than a couple of days. Can we please include a panicked running to Gaku to stop the thing because Hazou just had a flash insight on the horror he just unleashed, also known as mass inflation of fiat currency?
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Yes, you can.

RandomOTP said:
ONWARD TO THE REACTION POST:
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Thank you so much for doing these. I love reading them.

RandomOTP said:
We should probably level athletics or something similar. Combat applications aside, we're being shown up by Cannai and simply cannot stand! We're supposed to be the evolutionary long distance runners!
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Damn, I meant to put something in about that, with Hazō saying "You know, on the Human Path the humans are the best runners" and then one of the dogs giving a snappy comeback. Maybe next time.

RandomOTP said:
If our next arc isn't going to be chasing Mizuki's employer (which I bet is Orochimaru... snake that he is, I'm willing to bet that he had a mole or two left in Leaf even after his banishment), then I'd like to spend it trying to bridge the feral Steel Hill Pack with the rest of the Dog Clan. Maybe we can get a Steel Hill dog summon to serve as a sort of ambassador? First steps in a reconciliation between the two groups?
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Note that the Steel Hills pack no longer exists. The name is dust and will never be used again in order to preserve the honor of its memory.
 
[X] Training Hazou: FOOM

Perhaps our next plan should start with checking with Gaku that we have enough liquidate-able assets to survive if people do try to cash in all the scrip at once? And then maybe moving Lailoken's land clearing plan up to the step where we start clearing land with profit in mind?
 
SC Math for Chapter 404 (Applied):
@eaglejarl, @Velorien
By the SOPs, Keiko is training with 4 clones (with a little help from Noburi) and Akane is training with 4. With 8 base XP, the SC payouts are:
  • Keiko: +3.2 XP (8 x0.4)
  • Akane: +3.2 XP (8 x0.4)
The following previous payouts are not accounted for:
Inferno Vulpix said:
A bit late but better than never:
SC Math for Chapter 400:
@eaglejarl, @Velorien
By the SOPs, Keiko is training with 4 clones (with a little help from Noburi) and Akane is training with 4. With 3 base XP, the SC payouts are:
  • Keiko: +1.2 XP (3 x0.4)
  • Akane: +1.2 XP (3 x0.4)
All previous payouts are accounted for.
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