Interlude I: The Relgte of The Great Quartenity

 

[This Holy Relgte was inscribed by The Untethered Prophet of the Infinite Multiverse, who sees all that was, all that is, and all that is to come.

 

Scroll 1: Chapter 1.

The Creator is.

She is karma, the container of souls.

She is existence, the infinite multiverse itself.

She is the mother of all that was, all that is and all that is to come.

She is the Progenitor god of all creation.

Everything that exists is created by her will.

She created the beginning of all karma. In that beginning, she created everything that exists. Her creations were unruly, so she sought to give them governance and protect them from corruption. In her wisdom, she created the first deities; Life and Death.

The Creator was unconcerned about the day-to-day existence of the mortals, she only continued to create what she desired.

As the centuries went by, and corruption filled the worlds of mortals, Life and Death were swayed by their desire to annihilate each other, and went to war. Death refused to allow the dead to be reborn and live again, while Life refused to allow the living to die.

This was the First Divine War.

In the war between two gods, thousands of worlds were corrupted, and destroyed without a trace. The Creator was angered at the destruction of her precious creations, and in response, she created a new deity; Chaos, to seal away the corrupted worlds, disrupt the war between Life and Death, and sow discord between the mortals fighting in the gods’ armies.

Chaos is The Onslaught of the Dark Void.

In the First Divine War, Chaos created maestrils of the Dark Void to contend against the gods’ armies. These creatures fed on the karma of both the living and the dead, creating a Void Eruption from the corrupted worlds. Learning from his mother, Chaos gave his maestrils free will, both inside and outside the Void, and his creations were hungry for karma, devouring worlds to create more Void worlds. Although the corruption was reduced, the Creator was still unsatisfied, and she feared her children would seek more corruption and continue to wage war against each other, so she created another deity; Order. The Creator then vowed that she would not create any more deities. Order would oversee all the Divine Wars, and ensure that there was minimum damage done to the Creator’s creations.

Order is The Unrivalled Tower Master.

Order is law, she is the system, she is the Tower. She is also the last deity ever directly created by the Creator. After the four of them fought together to prevent the corruption of all mortals, Order forbade her brothers, the other gods, from engaging in direct wars against each other. She ended the First Divine War by breaking the chains that forbade mortals from gathering more karma and allowed mortals the ability to shed their mortal coil and Ascend to godhood if the right conditions were met. To pacify her brothers, Order began by allowing the existence of the demon gods, agents of Death, the saint gods, agents of Life and the gods, neutral agents. She also allowed Chaos to contain the Void.

Order created the Towers, designating them to be the only areas where Divine Wars could be waged with mortals. In the First Divine Summit, the four gods came together in a Void Domain to create a way forward.

These four gods, Life, Death, Chaos and Order, are known as The Great Quartenity.

They agreed to delegate most of the Divine Wars, not to mortals, but to an existence that was both mortal and immortal, an existence that shed its mortal coil, but did not have enough karma to Ascend to godhood: the constellations.

Constellations and gods are all deities in their own right.

The existence of all constellations would be governed only by the Great Quartenity. Constellations would be given the rights to a world by a god that they follow, and they would protect the world from corruption and govern the world until such a time that the world’s Void erupted, giving life to maestrils, sowing Chaos, and allowing the world to be integrated into a Tower. In the abandoned worlds, the Void worlds, constellations could then go to war for the gods that they follow without fear of destroying the worlds.

Inside a Tower mortals could choose to be players, amassing karma as they climb the Tower at their own behest, or with the sponsorship of a deity to complete the Infinite Challenge and conquer the Tower. In the Towers, deities could use players as proxies in the Divine Wars.

Still, the gods wanted to have a way to fight against each other, and they came to the agreement that gods could only fight inside the Corrupted Void Domains, in nothingness.

The Tower is Order’s domain, and The Void is Chaos’ domain]

 

---

Interlude II: SynnForessa

A small fox opened its eyes. Its head hurt terribly, and it tried to stand up. Its whole body ached, and it wondered why it was in so much pain. It could not remember the last time that it felt pain at all. Where was it? It was in an empty place. A room of pure white walls and nothing but emptiness. What was it? Who was it? Immediately as it thought this, strange words filled its vision.

 

[Constellation System Loading. Please Wait]

 

[Error! Constellation Status Revoked.]

 

[Contacting System Administrators. Please Wait]

 

[System Administrator: Soul Shard Identified as The Star-Eating FireFox Queen. Avatar of The Mystical Nine-Tailed Demon Fox God.]

 

[System Administrator: Fallen Star identified. All matters pertaining to constellations must be forwarded to The Great Quartenity]

 

The little fox wondered what all these words meant. However, the name The Great Quartenity triggered something in its memories. A memory of standing trial in the darkness of a river of stars, fear overcoming it. It remembered four strong auras bearing judgment on the little fox for breaking the rules. It shuddered. It could not understand what was happening.

“Can you hear me, child of the Nine-Tailed Fox?” a voice asked. “Do you know who you are?”

The fox looked around. There was no one else in this white room, but the voice was both familiar and authoritative. Did it know who it was? Who…?

“Unbelievable. It’s just an empty soul shard, yet this stupid demon god refuses to let it go. Fools, the lot of them. Alright then, I shall be merciful, and give you rebirth in a vessel appropriate for your broken soul. Arise, child. You are alive. Tell me who you are, you should know it now,” the strange voice said.

The fox stood still, and then all of a sudden, a veil was suddenly yanked out of its mind, and it remembered that it was a she.

She stood up on two legs, and her fur started to thin out, her paws turning into hands and feet. She remembered something else about herself. She was not a fox, but a foxkin.

“SynnForessa,” she said, voice hoarse and quiet. That was her name. The name her mother had given her when she was born. That’s right, she remembered that she was born in the blessed world of Zamone. She was a princess loved by her subjects, and adored by many. She was gifted with magic ever since she was a child, and when she came of age, she was chosen to be the avatar of The Nine-Tailed Fox and sent into a Tower.

After that, what happened?

“Good, you recovered the previous body you had when you were Chosen,” the low, authoritative voice said. “Do you know who I am?”

SynnForessa listened to the voice, it really was familiar, she had heard it before, but when was it? A sharp pain cut through her head as memories, fragments of unknown memories flooded her brain. She suddenly knew why she remembered this voice. It was one of The Four. She fell to her knees at once and bowed her head on the floor.

“Unrivalled One! I apologise for standing on my feet in your presence!” she said, head bowed, but there was no karma pressure from the voice of The Unrivalled Tower Master. “Please, Holy One, let me know why a being of your stature is here, speaking to this lowly one instead of sending your Incarnation.” SynnForessa’s mind may have been a mess, but she knew her place. The god speaking to her was regarded by many as one of the most powerful active gods of all time, so to have an audience with her, was both insane and terrifying.

When The Unrivalled next spoke, her voice was tinged with annoyance. “Believe me, child, I do not wish for even this negligible fraction of my essence to be here right now. This is your Divine Domain…or it was, while you were a constellation, therefore I can be here.”

SynnForessa startled, “I was a constellation? Can you please tell me more? Everything is jumbled, and my memories are so distant from me.”

“While under The Nine-Tailed Fox, your world was protected from corruption, and aVoid Eruption, but after you betrayed him, and took over that world, your power could not hold the corruption or the Void at bay. You were judged by The Quartenity for betraying your deity, and we took your immortality because you chose to Descend into a world of mortals to join the fight as a constellation. Without your powers, without your god, you lost the war.” The Unrivalled’s voice was monotonous, and SynnForessa trembled as her past life was read to her like a passing thought.

”You were captured, your world destroyed and you spent years trapped inside the Void, your karma slowly being siphoned into a Void Star. You would be dead if not for a player saving you. Since you were a constellation and the four of us are responsible for deciding the life and death of constellations, we were called upon. Still, my brothers cannot be bothered with you as we already passed judgment on you. Normally, since your soul belongs to The Nine-Tailed Fox, then he should just claim it, and you would die, but he refuses to. You betrayed him, so he will not save you, but he is your god, so he refuses to kill you. Therein lies my predicament. You are an existence outside of order.”

SynnForessa lifted her eyes. Order was the true name of The Unrivalled One. “Will you kill me to restore order?”

From what The Unrivalled One had told her, she had let her greed overcome her, betraying her god, and stealing his world. Even so, she could not protect the world, and she had Descended in desperation, causing The Great Quartenity to take away her immortality for breaking the sacred rules given to all deities. Her world was gone, all her people were dead, her god had turned away from her, and she had nothing left. She deserved to be punished severely, yet The Nine-Tailed Fox would not claim her soul and let her die? Why?

“You are no longer a constellation, but a reborn soul that just partook in a tutorial, and earned karma from your endless fight against the maestrils. I do not needlessly meddle with the life and death of mortals. You are a level 1 mortal now, and all the karma and the stars you amassed for centuries are gone, pitiful child. Since you gave away your Void Star as well, you do not have a single star to your name anymore. You were a Chosen One of The Nine-Tailed Fox, before, and you still are, since he still has not abandoned you. Think of this as a rebirth of sorts. You shall Ascend the Deiwos Tower with the latest tutorial batch, you have more than enough karma,” The Unrivalled said.

“But would it be fair to the participants of that tutorial?” she asked.

“You defeated a level 5 maestril mini-boss by yourself, earning that karma within the seven days of the tutorial! If you hadn’t done that, their final fight would have been much harder,” The Unrivalled told her.

SynnForessa shook her head, “I was only able to muster the strength because the maestrils stopped siphoning my karma from my shrine. This is their achievement, not mine.”

“Do not argue with me. I will not include your contributions in their final tutorial quest rewards, so you just need to accept the karma, and thank the player who stopped the maestrils from siphoning karma from your shrine. Accept that I’ve reincarnated your soul and you have a second chance at life.”

A second chance? No, she did not deserve it, not after betraying the Nine-Tailed Fox, and causing the deaths of millions of innocent foxkin.

“You’re letting me live?” SynnForessa asked in surprise. Her sins were forgiven because she had already been punished as a constellation, and now that she was a mortal, they would not punish her anymore?

“Your memories shall always be with you, growing stronger as you grow stronger. The pain and deaths that you caused shall always haunt you, for as long as you live. That is punishment enough. You're lucky that I am not punishing you for that stunt you pulled with the Void Star. You may Ascend the Deiwos Tower, but you may not choose another deity, your soul is already his, and The Nine-Tailed Fox will not let you go.” The Unrivalled told her.

On her knees on the floor, SynnForessa looked around this empty white room. Her domain. It used to be so full of life when she lived here, filled with all the stars that she had collected. It was her home, a gift from her master. Tears filled her eyes when she thought of her greed and her past mistakes. The memories were not completely clear, but she knew that The Unrivalled was telling the truth.

“Master, please let me go. I betrayed you. I stole that world that you trusted me with! Release my soul, let me die!” SynnForessa cried, but there was no response from the Nine-Tailed Fox.

“He will not answer. He has turned his face away from you. He will let you keep the powers that he gifted you when you reach the required levels and Tiers,” The Unrivalled said. “Tell me, why did you Descend, child? There had to be another way to save your people, but you chose to take the easiest and worst path.”

SynnForessa tried to remember, to think of why she had Descended. There was a fog obscuring her memories, but one thing stood out. “It took everything from them. The corruption razed my world, devastated the foxkin, corrupted the animals, and rotted our beautiful forests. The Blessings I gave them were too weak, and all of my Chosen Ones fell either to the corruption itself or the maestrils and the Void that stole their karma after the Void Eruption,” she said as bits and pieces of the memories came to mind. “I did it because I wanted to save them, and I felt guilty because our world lost its protection when I stole it from The Nine-Tailed Fox.”

“I see, that is how he is I suppose,” The Unrivalled said, with bitterness being the second emotion her voice had shown throughout the entire interaction.

As more of the fractured memories filled her mind, SynnForessa broke down. In her foolishness, she had tried to save her world from corruption by Descending, but the moment she left the sky was when she truly doomed her world. “Master, please, let me return to you, you can do as you please with my soul. So many of my people, your people, died because of my greed. I don’t deserve to be reborn!”

“Honestly, my mother’s creations are all the same. Mortals, gods, and constellations are all bound by superfluous emotions. Even though the entire world of Zamone was destroyed, your subjects prayed to me, to save the Legacies of your world. They prayed to me to save what remained of your soul shard. You are alive because I answered those prayers,” The Unrivalled said gently. “The worst thing any deity can do is to ignore the heartfelt prayers of the mortals that have faith in them. You are not a deity anymore, but you are still the queen of a dead world. You are the only living thing that remains of Zamone, so live, SynnForessa, if not for yourself, then for your people.”

Even after she brought them to ruin, those mortals still prayed for her. They were gone, but she was still here, alive. The Unrivalled was right, she had to live for them. “Thank you, Holy One. I will not forget your mercy. Please let my master know, that I will not fail him this time.” SynnForessa said, standing up.

“Just Ascend, child. If you come into the sights of The Quartenity again, we will throw your soul into the Void.”

It was a warning, telling her to exercise caution, and SynnForessa understood what The Unrivalled meant. Next time, if she sinned, it would not be Order that came for her, but Chaos. Involuntary shivers filled her, and the blood in her veins went cold when even the vaguest memory of her time stuck in the Void, the endless torture, surfaced. She hurriedly blocked those memories and locked them in a cage never to be opened again. She wanted to forget about the Void, and just live for the people who had faith in her.

Her body was whole again, and she could re-access the system. Unfortunately, she was no longer a constellation, so she had to make do with the system used by mortals.

 

 

Her alignment stood out the most. She was very deep into the red, and at this rate, she would never be able to enter any safe zones. This negative alignment had to be a result of the millions of foxkin who had died because of her greed.

For a former constellation, that amount of karma was truly pitiful. If that idiot thunderbird, Tonare, had still been alive, he would have undoubtedly made fun of her for centuries because of it. SynnForessa sighed. Would she be able to have a brand new life? Would she find another rival to fight against for years, urging each other to grow stronger like she did with Tonare? She did not know.

She looked at her karma again. That much karma at level 1? It was practically unheard of. Well, she needed to level up and upgrade her class. It should not take too long, at least to get to level 10. She checked a few other things, and then she Ascended into the Deiwos Tower.

 

---

 

Interlude III: The Top Ten

 

Liv'Kungsadu’s determination solidified as he stood in front of the 40th Floor Overlord’s office, fuelled by the injustices he'd endured. They called the Towers the playgrounds of the deities, but he would turn the Deiwos Tower into a true battleground. He would build an empire, his own realm, where he controlled the fate of all demigods from a divine throne.

Although Langa did not know it yet, Liv’Kungsadu had already Chosen him to be his trusted ally, the one who would stand at his right hand. One thing worried him though, earlier today, he had seen Kindaro and Makoto leaving the temple, but it was Ghol's stealthy pursuit that had aroused his suspicion. Could he have saved the boy? Perhaps. However, that was not the ideal path for Langa. Liv'Kungsadu was sure of it, Makoto's demise was necessary to ignite the fire within Langa, to provide him with the purpose and motivation that he so desperately craved.

With Langa by his side, Liv’Kungsadu would rise above the skies, and all who abused him when he was weak would grovel at his feet. Already he could feel the seal on his mana core starting to break. His grandmother and den-brother thought that clipping his wings would stop him from flying, but they forgot that he was not a dragon, but a demigod.

As Liv'Kungsadu pushed open the door, he was ready to embark on the path of vengeance against his father, the search for divine power, and his own Ascent to godhood, the path that lay before him, beckoning him forward.

 

---

 

Linora gazed at the bloodshed on the ground, the bodies of her five teammates from the tutorial, and then at the dark elf standing on top of the bodies. He looked magnificent, clad in the Reaper’s gab, his eyes completely black, a stark contrast to the red blood covering his white hair. The giant eagle maestril boss was dead on the ground, its soul trapped in the dark elf’s necklace. She could also see the five souls of their dead comrades screaming as his scythe reaped them. They had so many hopes and dreams, and they had worked together to earn victory over the maestril, but as soon as it died, her liege killed all of them. Now he was reaping their souls. Forever doomed to be tortured as his fuel to power, the souls would never gain any rest. None of the other princes could compare to him.

Those wretched, forlorn souls, how dare they try to resist her liege's power? They should have been grateful to become a part of him, to become nothing but nourishment for his death magic. Linora watched him in awe as he subdued every last soul, forcing them to kneel to him, to become slaves to his bidding, to disappear into his mana.

She knew it, right then, that her liege, Vos Kindaro II, would be the one to unite all the factions of the dark elves in the Deiwos Tower, he would be the king of Raluka, and he was the only one worthy of becoming the Visage of The Demon King of The Thousand Undead Knights.

"It's time, Linora," he said, the ritual finished. It was time to Ascend, and take the Tower by storm.

 

---

 

Eight players were on their knees in front of Pranav, and one stood by his side. He could not believe that he had actually pulled it off, that they finished the tutorial without losing a single person. Such was the unity of numbers and the importance of a good gang leader. He could toot his own horn all he liked, as he looked at these mortals, all different races, bowing to him, a human from a lost world, but he would not have been able to do it without the man standing next to him, the man he loved.

He looked down at his comrades, all of whom acknowledged him as their leader, and smiled. His hands were shaking in excitement. To think that on the night after he had been released from prison, celebrating with his love, he had been brought into this world. The thought of forming his gang of ungodly, deranged individuals to raze the Tower, to take from those who worked hard for what they had, to kill those who diligently fought for something noble, was so enticing that he could barely contain his smile.

“We have all made our oath to you, and you know that we will follow you until the end. Let's Ascend, sthandwa sami,” the man next to him said, holding out his hand.

Pranav nodded and took his hand. He could not wait to learn the laws of the Tower so that he could find ways to break them without getting himself and his men caught. That was half the thrill of breaking the law—the possibility of getting caught. Truly, the idea of leading a gang of criminals that defied even the gods thrilled him to no end.

He was sure that he could find a diabolical deity to support his cause.

---

 

Fi Kindaro III stood outside the 37th Floor Overlord's office. His creation dragged itself behind him, and he turned around to look at it. It was his first successful undead creation. It was not a zombie, like what had happened with the maestril mini-boss, no, it was a wight.

"Makoto," Fi said, and the creature's blank eyes stared up at him. "That is your name. I have taken everything from you, but I will let you keep your name."

A veil was lifted from those blank eyes, and they returned to the black colour of the boy's eyes. "M..Mako...Makoto..." Its voice came out hoarse and strained because he had slit its throat.

Fi was pleased, this ritual had been a success, except for the fact that he had failed to obtain the boy's karma. "Be good, and listen to me. You, unlike the zombies, can grow in strength, thus you can grow my strength. We shall grow together, and then I shall make you strong enough to stand against my siblings, as well as the man that you called brother," he whispered, hand on the scar on his eye. It had healed already, but the mark remained—Langa's mark on him. A sinister smile filled his lips as he remembered the anguish in his former teammate's eyes when he’d killed Makoto. He could feel it in his karma, the thread of vengeance was already formed between the two of them, and he would not have it any other way.

He would have liked to have Liv'Kungsadu, but demigods were too unstable and hard to manipulate. With his mysterious attribute, Langa was a prize worthy of standing next to his siblings once he defeated them all and turned them all into his wights. He was sure that Langa would come after him, but Fi would avoid any direct confrontations before they both reached Tier 5. As for his siblings, he debated who to target first. Jo would be the most powerful opponent, Vos the most troublesome to fight against, and Mari the hardest to control. Ah, he laughed mirthlessly, there was a way to kill three dark elves with one staff... he would do what he did best, and manipulate his little brother before Mari could reach him.

The three of them would become nothing but slaves to him in due time, and the fourth, well, there was no challenge there as long as he amassed enough power. The world of Raluka would be in the palm of his hands, and The Demon King of The Thousand Undead Knights would have no choice but to make Fi his Visage.

 

---

 

Vavuciadsforenkka screamed in anger. They were gone! All three of them Ascended as soon as he dealt the final blow to the goblin maestril boss. It was almost as if they had timed it exactly to the dot. He gritted his teeth. Those damn useless cretins. How had they known that he was planning to kill the lot of them before they Ascended? He was a dragonkin, a race glorified as the rulers of mana, and the tutorial expected him to work together with lowly humans, beastkin and even a fucking demonkin?

Fighting alongside worthless races was beneath him. He had made it hell for them to fight the mini-boss maestril, and he had even managed to kill two of them before completing the quest. Was that how they knew he was planning to stab them in the back? Well, granted, he had spent the last six days making a sport of hunting those stupid weaklings, and the only reason why they were not all dead was because they rallied behind that human woman. She had led those weaklings around, killing low-level corrupted creatures, and completing simple side quests in order to obtain karma.

She was strong for a human, her swords had dared to cut through his scales. He gritted his teeth at the humiliation of being injured by a mere human. He should have been suspicious when she approached him yesterday, asking for a truce while they fought the boss monster. Vavuciadsforenkka had agreed because he was planning to kill them all afterwards anyway. But that bitch must have known what he was planning. She must have had her two friends time it perfectly, to Ascend just before he could kill them.

She would pay for making a fool of him. What was her name again? Ah, he licked his lips in anticipation of the day he would sink his teeth into her human throat, her name was Khaya Tlou.

 

---

 

The waiting room was a bland white square, but none of that mattered to Lin Yan as he sat cross-legged on the floor, meditating. He had tapped into his demigod abilities and killed the mini-boss maestril in the tutorial by himself, and, having obtained 1000 karma, Ascended. Otherwise, if he had used his powers in the presence of his teammates, they would all be dead. He sincerely hoped they had made it out of the tutorial alive. No, he did not have the luxury of worrying about others, not when the karma was steadily consuming him. This white room was too cold for him, having been raised inside a volcano.

Lin Yan tried to concentrate on what he was doing. There were lucents everywhere around him, and he forced his mind to concentrate on that. He breathed in, allowing the lucents into his body, then he directed the mana into the mana core in his heart, trying to soothe it and disperse the power throughout his body. He felt it coming in, and directed the power ever so slowly through his pathways, ever so carefully, keeping it as stable as possible until it reached his heart.

Alas, it was all for nought.

The core was unstable, and he could hear their voices in the air, whispers of unending agony. The curse in his heart burned away the mana that he had so carefully gathered, and that dark heart burned his veins and he screamed out in pain. His body could not handle the karma, the mana, or any of his power. If the tutorial did not end soon, if he did not get his mother’s Blessing, if she did not choose him, then his demigod curse would consume him and he would self-destruct into nothing but the Void.

 

---

 

Mari Kindaro IV gripped the voodoo doll tightly in her hands. The needles stuck in the doll dug into her hand, and she started to bleed.

“Your Highness! Please stop!” Her aide cried out.

Mari ignored him, and knelt on the ground, dripping her blood all over the dead skeleton knight maestril’s body. She placed the doll over its ribs and began the chant. Her blood boiled as the doll opened its eyes and started to move. It swallowed the bones of the skeleton knight diligently, and Mari felt the curse of the undead flowing into her body.

The pain was unbearable, like every other curse that she absorbed, but she still endured. She needed as many curses as she could get in order to defeat her brothers. The curse dug into her bones, and she could feel them rotting inside, and she gritted her teeth, and held in her scream. Pain was but a small price to pay for power. Whether she wanted it or not, this was the misfortune of her attribute.

Finally, after a few long minutes of torture that felt like hours, the tattoos on her body lit up, and a new one was burned into the skin, of a skeleton knight. She had it. Now she had a curse that would be effective against Fi and Vos, and it might even work against Jo too if she learned to control it properly.

Even if this was not the life that she wanted for herself, she was a princess, and she would do her duty. She would consolidate her power, bringing the dark elves under her banner, and show them the true path of dark magic. They would revere her, and she would become the queen of Raluka and the saviour of the dark elves. This was the only way to save her little brother, Jo, from having to carry that burden.

 

---

 

A lone mermaid swam around the dungeon, the dead squid maestril’s body slowly disappearing. In her hands, she held a trident and looked at the damaged portrait in the water with disdain. A constellation that abandoned his seaworld and all the merfolk living in here was not fit to call himself a deity. A real deity listened to his subjects, and protected them while answering their prayers.

Coraloa was a Chosen One. She was chosen from her warring seaworld by the great deity Aquarius after so many years of praying for the redemption of her people. Now that she was here, carrying her entire dying world's hopes and dreams, Coraloa would complete the Infinite Challenge, and conquer the Deiwos Tower. That way, she could have enough power to protect her home from the self-righteous constellations of the saint gods.

Aquarius had promised to intercede for her with The Unrivalled Tower Master so that she could be chosen as a Guardian Knight. Still, Coraloa put her hands together, and prayed to The Unrivalled. She prayed that the Holy One would hear her plight, and show her favour. She had earned a lot of karma in this tutorial with her teammates, and she hoped that would put her in The Unrivalled’s sights.

She had a lost world to save, so she Ascended to the Deiwos Tower.

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