4 Chapter 4

Warmth.

The celestial sun which shone from above brings warmth to all entities that ever exist. It brings heat to the cold, food to the plants, light to the dark; yet why is it...why is it that I feel so cold?

A groan escaped to my mouth, inaudible noises of speech ringing through my vulnerable ears as I shivered under the dirty ragged clothes I wore. Loud chatters of various of kind, clatters of boots, and many more booming laughers of joy that were hailed through my ears, I can hear them all, yet there were not even a single thing I can ponder and understand.

Another shiver crawled through my spine.

"I haven't made progress..."

Time had blitzed by away so quick, so much so that I haven't gotten grasp a hold of it even for a mere inch. I'm lost, not through this labyrinth of a city I myself was able to walk and venture in through, but to the immaculate and incontrollable time which comes to pass through for all of eternity to come. I could have been here for weeks, months, or probably years, but I hope it doesn't come to that, I hope it wouldn't.

"Not that I didn't made any progress at all, I made few things on my own," I reminded myself, refusing to add more salt to the wound called, 'being unable to communicate.' I have made few, if not, slightly significant advancement three days after being transported to this still unknown world. "I've gotten the slums to be a place to rest, have food I can manage to swallow up and keep my stomach away from being empty, and even some drinking water."

Another shudder.

Yeah no, stable as it may be, it was struggle managing to live in a world where one can't even communicate with others, and even to this day, I'm still having a hard time doing that. Useless, I was unable to do anything at all, I have a feeling that it had come to the point where even childrens would be more of a use than I am.

A sigh of defeat heaved out through my mouth. "Man, atleast childrens can brighten up people's day. I'd be called a weirdo if I do the same... Who the hell gets cheered up by a guy in rags flailing his arms wide while spouting up absolute nonsense?!"

Where's that random God that gives people those sweet starter packs in order to survive? Where's that cheat many fictional characters were able to aquire in various stories I read online? And while I was once a religious man myself, "Whom asshole of a God decided it would be good to just put me here with nothing at all? I was literally walking out here in nothing but dirty clothes!"

Another sigh left my throat, 'Well, not like slouching around would do anything different, I guess.'

Arms extending open wide, I stretched out all  of my limbs as I stood up from the concrete small fence surrounding and covering a tiny water fountain out open in the public view, loudly uttering a huge yawn and mentally preparing as I start my day like the ones I've done so few. The sweet fragrant smell of the wind, the sky from above so blue, and while the environment here was as vast as the ones I see back home, it felt more special and more clean than those contaminated with smokes.

"Such precious clean air, no wonder why people love the world back then more than the corrupted modern days." I chuckled to myself, remembering those times where one can get smoked out with black suffocating smokes emitted by public transportation vehicles. "I hope this continues longer than thousands of years, atleast give mother nature more time to get green before dirtying it with those damn world-wide pollution!"

Pollution sucks, and the worst part of all, it's man-made. Sometimes, I am ought to think that mankind were really the monsters all fear about than those horrifying creatures told in tales of old. The 'True Parasites' of Earth as what I like to call it.

"Random thoughts to think about for another time, this is." I silently told to myself, twisting my waist and arms to hear those satisfying 'pops' that I often enjoyed to hear. "Well then, let's get started!"

That said, I grinned at the face of this very unforgiving world, momentarily shooing off my problems away as I went to finally start my day. Hands crumbled into a fist, I gripped my palms as hard as I could whereas a familiar plastic cup were squeezed onto it.

"It's time to do 'it'!" Smile as hard, that I tried at the best I could, yet when my stomach grumbled down, as if begging someone— anyone— to stop, my blood went cold as my smile fell grim.

Another shiver crept up into my spine.

I took a deep breath and gulped down a big slump of saliva down to my throat, "Aw, shit. Here we go again..."

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______________________________

Well, shit..

"—gurk! This.. bluegg!... Just..one..more!"

One step at a time, I swayed left and right, trying to balance my terrible footing as I tried my best to not puke out all the contents I forced myself to swallow.

Disgusting, nay, disgusting is but underestimating it. It's demonically horrible!! The taste of rotten fruits and meat leftover contents were horrifyingly dominating my taste and sending it on overdrive, in a much more disgusting way! I can taste it and at the same time, smell it from my mouth, the odorous and ineffably foul taste in my mouth, it taste like a mixture of metal and dirt while smelling like a human fecal matter left to rot for days in the freezer.

"One... More..." I covered my mouth with a hand to restraint myself from barfing as I held a small chunk of a smelly rotten apple being feasted by flies on the other. "Last.... This is—bluegh! This is..the last..."

Amidst fighting the urge to let out all the stuffs residing on my gut, and with a horrified screaming stomach, I threw the last bit of that rotten garbage into my mouth and swallow it whole. However, as quick as it fell to my stomach was how it was quick for the taste to follow soon after.

My eyes grew wide.

Grabbing the once recyclable plastic bottle from the ground, I desperately scooped out a handful of water from the water fountain open for the public view in a rush and tried to drink it in one gulp...

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...that is I tried.

'Nooooo, my water—'

Through my desperation, the bottle slipped through my hand and fell down to the water fountain, absolutely wasting the time I have left that my stomach can handle the food. Shit. That's the only word that came to my mind as I felt as if the very innards of my body came rising up to my throat; it was so simple, yet was enough for me to know my doom is about to come. Thus, I did what my brain begged me to do.

Bring water.

As fast as I could, contents of food scavenged out from garbage slowly rising up to my throat, I grabbed the water bottle that fell submerged onto the fountain's water and pulled it out once more. It was a split second risky move, an action made in but a mere second before one tragedy may have been able to strike true. Food of various kind nearly came flooding out of my mouth, staining the cobblestone ground with nothing but dirty brown vomit have it had occured, yet at the nick of time, I managed to chug down the water and pushed it back to where it belongs.

Breathes of pants, many heaves of exhaustion came pushing out of my lungs and throat as I successfully swallowed the every last bit of my 'food.' A sigh of relief came out to my mouth soon after, taking some moments of time as I took a breathe.

"How... Just how could trying to push down garbage down to one's stomach be this dramatic?!"

How is that even possible, to make it as if it was an epic showdown of trying to overcome one's own weaknesses, why was taking in bad food that much overly dramatic? That I do not know. Perhaps I was just overly exaggerating it this much, or maybe I was this much crazy to make such simple but excruciating process of taking in rotten food down to my stomach something out of an action movie? No answers for that I can provide.

Overall, that's all of it, I guess. Exaggerated or not, atleast I ate food— although horribly terrible so— and that's all that matters. Though I've got too say, "I swear to God, or whoever deities that exists out there, how more of an asshole could you be?! I bet they're laughing at my suffering ass right now!"

I bet they are! They were probably betting chips and stones to whatever dumb action I am fated to take in the next moment I walk! Such powerlessness, can I atleast take a break? Please?

"Shitty Gods."

A moment of rest was all I gave to myself in order to recover from that one traumatizing event before standing up once more. The fatigue that came after it was terrible, but not to the point that it restricts me to move even one single arm at all!

"Aw shucks. Now that I think about it, I'm beginning to feel like shit." I silently muttered under my breath, wiping out my mouth with an arm as to try and remove the leftovers of that rotten apple on my lips.

Another shiver shuddered down to my spine.

"Uh...wait, hold up. This?..." Out of the blues, my body felt cold, I was very familiar yet something more different than how I have been feeling earlier this morning. It wasn't the sensation that made it as if no heat from the sun can warm my body, nor is it like the cold windy night when I was trying to fall down and sleep at the homes of the slums. It was different. It felt as if an ominous all looking eyes have struck me in with this observing gaze of theirs.

"Am I being watched?..."

Looking around, I halfheartedly expected one  creepy person was to whom that 'gaze' belongs to, a 'mysterious' figure that I often watch and read from various of medium back in the days. Something out of both fictional and non-fictional story genres— a 'stalker.' Faster than how one government can be corrupted by greedy politicians, I swung my head left and right. Yet as I scanned my eyes around, I have come to a single dumbfounded conclusion. A conclusion so sudden that I almost pissed my pants as the realization rammed into me like a boar going full speed.

My breath froze.

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Everyone were starting at me...

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I can see them all, the passerby who came to a grinding halt as to stare at me with those scrunched and distorted face of theirs. There were not many of them that were on the park I am currently stationed at, yet their small numbers of lesser than eight consists enough pair of eyes for one animal to sweat bullets.

It was evident to their faces what thoughts they hold on those brain of theirs, the looks they bore alone tells everything of what they thought of me. While I am no psychic myself, their thoughts probably goes along the lines of, 'what in Jesus' name and the great paradise of heaven is he doing' or something the like based from how their faces were scrunched out as they lend me their eyes, especially that one short girl with long black hair tied in twin-tails— she looks as if she just saw a random hairless monkey taking a dump naked in the middle of the street... Well, that's technically me but whatever.

"What? You all looked as if you've seen a monkey with two heads; is it your first time seeing some hobo guy out of the wild?" I asked, certainly knowing not even a single person understood what I've just said.

It is but a question as to why these people suddenly stopped on their tracks and took time to stare at me when they could have just ignored this pitiful me and continue on their own ways. Yet while I appreciate their efforts to lend me their eyes at such small inconvenient moment that transpired to their lives, the longer they stare makes it more uncomfortable for me to stay still.

"Aw hell, place of the damned...." Understanding that the more I talk, the more weirder the looks of their eyes becomes, I took this as for my que to take action and stood up— dusting out my still dirty ragged clothes to become...well, still dirty. "Very well. While I appreciate the audiences, I guess it's time for me take my leave."

With a wave of my hand and a bow of my upper body, I stepped out of the attention zone and marched away onto the cold and hard cobblestone cemented streets, casually evading the people that were there to go to a place somewhere else— a place with less people that I can attract the attention of. However, even when I already tried to leave them at be, I can still feel the eyes, the stare that felt as if it was a sharp needle poking at the back of my head.

It's getting a bit uncomfortable.

"Nah, leave them be. They'll stop staring eventually." I reassured to myself, waving off the idea for it to be dispatched in but a shake of the head. Sure, they may be staring at me for now, but I know fully well that they'll eventually go back to their business and forget everything that has unfortunately happened in the past few minutes.

Eyes closed as I inhale the fresh air flowing graciously around, I calmed myself down as much as I can as the sun light that never felt so warm blinded me the same time as I opened up my eyes, the sun shining everything with it's almighty glow as it peeked out of the covers of it's white fluffy clouds to greet everyone with a bright blinding smile. A yawn escaped my throat, arms raising up to hide the mighty glow of the sun away from my vulnerable eyes as it glared at my skin.

"Huh, nothing has changed." I muttered to myself, looking around at the vicinity of the area I have set my foot into, the open wide streets that brings path to the place I call as the 'labyrinth city.' A small smile twitched to my lips, trying to hold the urge to laugh at how ridiculous I have named this vast city of civilization based from a... well, 'very' obvious reason. With such thoughts in mind, I heaved another sigh once more.

Truly, nothing has changed ever since.

Reminiscing the time when I was still but a new migrant to this world, migrated through a very unforgiving way at that, I can vaguely remember through the cloudiness of my mind the suffering I've gotten myself into as I roamed aimlessly within the face of this world, the same as I am even to this day. Many days, even weeks I don't know how much have passed ever since, so many days and nights have cycled through this world of unknown mystery, yet although with that much time passing by, I wasn't able to see any change that had happened through this place I am stepping a foot into at all; not even the pacing of the cold yet soothing wind has changed any of it's breezing tempo.

Many may say than the day today is different from the day yesterday and tomorrow, but to me and my thoughts alone, it felt all too similar. Perhaps it is just me becoming too used and overly accustomed to the routine I have kept in mind or maybe it's just me not paying attention to any change in details around, either way, none of them really matters.

My head shaking in dismissal as I pushed unnecessary thoughts away out of my brain, I looked around once more, taking sight of what lays around within the vicinity of this place.

Now that I think about it, it is truly bewildering how I am currently on my world no more. Onto the open sidewalks of the streets stands multiple shops and outdoor trading tents that looks as if it came from a movie that was set to take place on a medieval world, if anything those old-looking tarpaulin covered tents comes to go by. Inside of those were clerks and shop owners having chats and laughers with their respective customers, telling jokes and farewells, judging from how some of them smiles and spoke words I'm frustrated to not know about.

Occupying the wide road and it's rough texture on the other hand, from the very long streets to the open sideways, were humans and non-humans— mystical and anthropomorphic beings with extraordinary features such as elongated ears and or furry animal tails— all being either having a humorous chat with the same species as they were or were simply walking pass by the same as I am.

"To think that these species of people exist in this place... I wonder what would happen if they were to exist on the modern world." Cold chills crawled up on my spine as I shivered in grimace. I already know what would happen and it's not something so pleasant to their respective 'nature.'

So weird and very much so bizarre, those were only but a mere short speculation of mine yet it's is already enough for my brain to be reminded that both of us were in a place so far away from home. No family to contact with, and no permanent home to pass up the day— I'm alone, that I have come to sadly accept.

"That's," I halted for a moment, trying to argue to the thoughts of being alone— yet when none came into mind, a deep release of breath heaved out of my throat. "Yeah..."

If there's that one guy to say, that I and my case of unprogressive actions to problems were but an easy task to be solved, to be able to get past through such hardships if they were in my stead, and go up to surpass those bumps in the road with such determination instead of whining around hopelessly like a loser, then I welcome anyone with open arms!

Anyone!

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"Tuhs pu ouy dratsab! Moi elvihctnibni!"

Boy or girl, young and old— anyone can join.

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"Ih eris, tghim ouy ib os detseretni ut kil sid naw?"

Everyone is allowed to switch places with me, if anyone would like to dare, I would gladly give this body to those of any interest.

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"Yeh ikag, tuw hed leh era uoy gniod? Emok kcab!"

Anyone!

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"Esucxe im eris?"

Please!

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"Oh,oh! Woh shiluf ouy ra!"

Hands placed across my ears, I covered them both as the innumerable irritatingly loud chatters of indiscernible obscure conversations began to overwhelm my ears.

'Stop.'

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"Pots...tnod...ti—"

They don't end, even with my ears closed, the noise don't come to end.

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"Tsuj...ud te...og ne eilf...tsurt im..."

'Stop!'

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"Suolevram, yrev suolevram!"

"Damnit!" I clutched my ears, the voices were getting stronger and stronger as I continue to move on, forcibly shoving inaudible random gibberish onto my ears like a constantly moving piston— it's frustrating.

Teeth clenched into a tight impenetrable grit, my patience has had enough. With a trembling limbs and an open eyes, I broke into a sprint, running as fast as I can as I shoved my own slim body to the crowd that formed around.

I simply, had enough, that's enough exploring the loud areas for today. I don't need to hear things I don't understand anymore, it's simply driving me crazy. Unable to speak, unable to converse, in a place where nothing makes sense, who would not go crazy then?

"This is a bad idea. Yeah, this is really a bad idea. Why did I did this, to venture this place once more?" I asked a question that even I myself can never answer. Why did I thought venturing to a place a rarely go to as a good idea? What was I thinking?! "I should have just went to the same dark alleyways, it's more uninhabited there..."

True, I should have just stayed back there or atleast have just went to a place I am aware to the safety of myself rather than just going anywhere and everywhere with no place in mind.

How troublesome of me.

Many time has passed, yet I am sure to myself that the nonsensical matters that was happening to me has driven me a little bit insane. To not be able to understand many things and to hear many of them unfold to my surroundings with the additional of a lot more factors, has been maddening me to no end— it feels as if trying to listen to an infant spouting gibberish death metal with the constant pulse of confusion banging up on my mind. It's not good at all.

"Aaaaah, I can't hear you~~!" I sang in a tone full of irony, trying to move pass the people infront of me and trying my best to avoid casualties that may befall over them. "Blah blah blah!"

But alas, it is evident that I cannot avoid everyone.

"Eeek!"

A high pitched squeak reached upon even my covered ears as I crashed into something within, thus in the process, causing me to stumble aback and stagger into the side. I was fine, I had regained posture as quick as I had nearly tumbled, yet to what, or rather— 'whom' I have crashed into was not as fortunate as I am.

The figure I have bumped into fell into the ground in a loud audible 'thud,' being so unfortunate to be the one to fall instead of me. Mysterious yet oddly enough, very ominous, the person on the ground wore brown cloak that covered their features and shadowed who or what they might be, however then, it is evident to that of their slim body that they're a woman in a cloak of brown— or perhaps they can be a man as slim and thin as I am, or even a 'monster' in disguise. Either way, that I do not know.

'Uhhh...'

One man have said that whenever you bump into someone, you offer them a helping hand, no matter who they might be. It is just a common logic to the ways of becoming a nice gentleman, something that all men should know and keep up to heart. And just like that, I did what I would normally do in case this happens.

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"I'm so sooorryyy!!!"

I ran away.

Just like how another one wise man have said, 'leave it... uhh, be a good gamer and get some milk.' Yeah, it goes like that, that's actually an existing quote. Trust me, bro.

Not long after, as I continued to run for who knows how long, I began to get tired.

Beads of sweat began to form across my temples, my breath heaving as wild as titanic waves has become more and more haggard as my lungs continued to burn within each steps my feet comes to take, and to the muscles under my legs, they were becoming more heavier to drag across the street as I tried to resume my sprint.

Time flied by so fast, I do not know how many minutes I have been forcing myself to run, but as I dashed away, trying to find the dark alleyways that I have seemed to lost track into within the overly massive amounts of crowds all around, I have begun to notice the decrease of people roaming everywhere. The irritating sound was lessening in volume, the gibberish language being spat across my face has turned less intense overtime, and as a response to this, I began to slow down my pace— to the extent that I am merely jogging rather than running.

After a little while, I finally stopped.

"Guuhhhhaaaaa!" Gasp for air, that was the thing I so quickly did as I halted my self from my sprint. I huffed and I gasped and I puffed, I was so exhausted sprinting that far to the point that I am tempted to swallow air for more oxygen to take in— if that even makes sense. Deep breath in, deep breath out, I gave myself a couple of minutes to catch up my breath as I scanned around what place on earth have I found myself again in, yet as I did so, my eyes went wide.

"...oh shit."

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Big.

Massive.

Thick.

And far too Huge.

Within the times that I was here on this world, I have not ventured the entirety of this place I am in— or for what I can observe, this 'city.' The place is just far too wide and far too crowded for me to explore— adding the fact that many people wearing identical crests or some of the sorts roams the empty streets at night, I didn't got chance to actually get to know the area. But this...

"Woah... That's huge." My exhaustion seemed to fade away as I traced up the massive structure infront of me with an awestruck eyes.

There, hundreds of meters away from me, stood one giant— nay, one ginormous tower. A tower of a building so high, it's like a pin that separates heaven and earth apart— a tower that pierced the heavens itself, both figuratively and literally. Even from the first time I was here, I have already saw this from afar, yet the difference of looking at it from both near and far was significantly a lot. That, by I mean, more than two and more.

The sky has turned orange, the clouds being a mirror of the sky— time has passed and it's already afternoon. Shock, awe, amusement, many feelings has invaded my heart like an expedition to concur the world, and within these explosion of emotion, I bent down and sat at the rough texture of the cobblestoned ground. It was a peaceful scenery, no disturbance and no nonsense of a word uttered at all— just the image of the tall building with the shade of orange luminously glowing from the back, something worth of staring as I continued to catch up my breath.

Such moment of tranquility, while there are those that roams around, I'm glad that they were more smaller in quantity and more silent in quality. Finally, after all of these that happened on the day, I have found peace. It is ridiculous how many outrageous things have come to happen this day, it goes as far as to be one of my many other chaotic moments in life. It felt a little bit crazy, so much so that I have spent most of the time running like an insane lunatic that has just recently been freed from mental hospital. But even then, atleast I did something today. Something I have done to keep my sanity at bay, like what I had done at the past few days, weeks, or perhaps even months. Though, I agree it is not the most suitable thing for that, I nearly went crazy hearing the things that came out of everyone's mouth. Never again would I let myself go to a more crowded place, never again.

However one question still arises.

"What now?"

Right now, what should I do next? I know that I can't keep being locked up in that same lonely alley, and while the sounds of utter bullshit being spat to me from every conceivable directions is maddening, I know I am ought to get used to that kind of environment very soon— that is if it doesn't drive me crazy before I can even leave outside. I want to do something, just something more— having some temporary shelter, food and clothes aren't going to be sufficient at all. I need to do something very impactful in order to finally be able to step forwards.

But what?

"Without any level of knowledge for being able to communicate as to find jobs, what else can I do? Pick grass?" I stormed my brain hard, trying to find solution as to what I wanna do next, yet everytime I think about it, nothing comes to mind. Perhaps it would be good to sell a rip-off of artworks from back home, but then again, I already lack equipment, more so the ability to do it? I could sell handmade modern items to other people in order to gain income, yet materials is something that I do not have, nor do I know where to find some in a world set back to that of the medieval times. Heck, perhaps I could just entertain people from the streets and ask for donations, however, it takes materials and years of experience to do that, something I really lack about.

There are many of other jobs I can think of that might sell well on this world, but it is the income and skills that I need in order to properly initiate that business and for it to even work. There are such various of stuffs I need to have before I can even start to initiate it such as materials, products, items, and equipments; and for who knows how much, I assume they costs a hefty lot. Not like I can just steal things on this place, every merchants and vendors I have seen in this city carries weapons of their own choice, ready to gut me up if I dare to steal their own products.

I breathed another sigh.

"Ha~~~ if only there's—...?! Wait..."

Suddenly, in an unexpected turn of events, an idea popped up on my mind. It was an idea freshly picked from the growing plant of my brain. I do not know how it will work, nor how am I going to do it with ease, but it is worth a try nonetheless.

"If they exist on this world... Then...."

Faster than any head movement to exist, I gazed my eyes around with the most neck-breaking head twists I have ever tried in my entire life. Left and right, up and down, front and back, I searched away for as far as my eyes can ever see and began murmuring to myself.

"I just need to find it, if I can, then perhaps I could..."

My eyes came into a halt, deep sharp orbs gazing at one particular place where a tall man in brown leather armor exited through carrying a sack he was casually tossing up in the air. Mouth closing up as my hands trembled under the ground, I swallowed a good slump of my saliva as I shook my head once more— It is time.

Thus, my world turned black.

"Got you."

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[Change of Character: ???]

[Tower of Babel, Top Floor.]

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Unbeknownst to Roneru, a pair of eyes were watching at him from above, one which is akin to that of a curious child watching and wondering how long can the flames of a bonfire burn as it ate away the fuel to the fire. Innocent as it may be, it is far from something so pure; within the mask of curiosity, hides the look of a very watchful gaze, something that homes an overwhelming sense of obsession.

The owner of those observing eyes smiled lustfully, her hands reaching to caress her perfectly hourglass shaped pale body before going down further as she slid her index and middle finger to her womanhood in a one swift move, moaning in pleasure as she began to touch herself.

"Ahn~!"

Yet even as she began to pleasure herself she never took her gaze away to the tiny figure of Roneru from below, her eyes were fixated to him, glued to him alone as she watched how his soul fluctuates and danced away in a spectacular raging sway.

"Ah~, how magnificent! Show me more, show me more! Show me more of what you are capable of, 'Soul who knows no rest!' Until then, keep up your struggles for the sake of my entertainment!" Here eyes narrowed down as a smile crept up to her lips, "After all, what use would be of your soul if you are not what your fate brands you to be, isn't that right?"

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"—————!"