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I've read one of those, except it was the opposite deal, where the protagonist foolishly chose to become a Fairy, and ended up super tiny, with everyone around her accidentally killing her over and over again, since her bones would snap like twigs at the merest touch. It was pretty amusing.
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Jan 13, 2018 23:54
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Ytlaya posted:I've said this before, but I want one of these WNs to just play the "protagonist is reincarnated and needs to beat the demon king" aspect straight, instead of these endless zany twists on a genre that doesn't seem to exist. Just have a story where the protagonist gathers a party and goes on an adventure to beat the bad guys. I think you're supposed to just play Dragon Quest for that.
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Jan 14, 2018 00:53
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blastron posted:I try very hard not to think about this. Well, even the published paper version of Honzuki has already taken 3 years to get just halfway through the story. Can't really demand you keep up with that. They recently announced a second manga illustrator for the adaptation, though, who's starting at arc 3. The original artist will still adapt arc 2, so they should be doing some kind of parallel publication soon, which might reduce the estimated manga conclusion by like a decade.
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Mar 15, 2018 16:36
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Tunicate posted:the very limited reference pool for wn authors also makes their versions of fantasy worlds kinda funny Not sure how you got this impression. Here's an illustration of their home:  The higher up you live, the more stairs you need to walk up/down to bring home water from the well, so it's not exactly luxurious to live above ground.
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May 9, 2018 14:02
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Tunicate posted:I checked and the first couple chapters definitely mention there being multiple bedrooms Hmm, looking at the original text, it seems this misunderstanding stems from the choice to translate "2DK" into "a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen". Technically a 2DK simply means 2 rooms and a dining/kitchen area. The Bookworm family apartment does indeed have two "rooms" in addition to the kitchen, but one is used for storage (firewood etc) as you can see from the illustration. The entire family sleeps in the same bedroom. I'm not even sure why I'm arguing about this. I just want more people to enjoy a great story. 
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May 10, 2018 00:13
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I don't know how much was changed in Isekai Ryouridou for the LN version, but I just checked the WN edition and it's currently up to 12000 pages, apparently. It's about to pass Bookworm in length.
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May 12, 2018 18:19
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For the heck of it, I went through a few months' worth of manga adaptations, and it seems isekai is pretty popular these days:
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May 15, 2018 19:28
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Jackard posted:What site do you check to find new and upcoming manga? You can set Amazon.co.jp to show manga releases from the past 90 days.
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May 16, 2018 15:32
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Feels like it's been a while, but I found a Japanese web novel I can recommend: Ore no Megane wa Tabun Sekai Seifuku Dekiru to Omou It's a non-isekai fantasy story about a world where everyone receives a special Talent when they come of age, and the protagonist's is the incomprehensible "Glasses" gift, initially letting him summon a pair of spectacles to, uh, improve his poor eyesight. Since boyhood he's been the village hunter's apprentice, after his teacher noticed he'd always be hiding away from attention and would thus be good at stalking prey, so now that he sets out into the world with his trusty bow, he gets to put these skills to use. Basically, it's got lots of monster hunting and adventuring and learning to grow ever stronger, surrounded (grudgingly) by friends and powerful teachers. What makes it special is really the voice of the narrative, with the protagonist's reluctance to be around other people often leading to laughs. In that way it kind of reminds me of Kumoko. It's also being updated frequently, with something like a hundred new pages of content monthly. Someone go translate it for the Western audience, please.
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Jun 25, 2018 20:47
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I just finished reading Watashi wa Tatakau Dungeon Master, and it was pretty good: Girl sees a mysterious group of people appear and destroy our world in front of her very eyes, but she runs at them to grab the "world core" they've stolen, and ends up sucked into their world, where she turns into a Dungeon Master, with the goal to collect enough soul points to recreate Earth again. Lots of murdering invading adventurers and random villagers who stumble upon her dungeon. Kind of reminded me of Kumoko mixed with Overlord's 7th volume, but, uh, more genocidal. The author managed to avoid a lot of tired clichés, mostly because the protagonist is a girl, I guess. It does lose steam a bit in the final third, yet still tied up nicely in the end, so I'm pleased enough. Complete at roughly 1300 pages in Japanese, but I'm not sure if anyone's been translating it.
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Jul 21, 2018 03:23
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I think I can recommend Maou wa Sekai wo Seifuku Suru You Desu now. I've just caught up with the latest chapter, which is a terrifying cliffhanger that left me with sweaty palms, so it's maybe the worst timing to bring it up, but it's pretty dang good! The setup is that a Japanese man in his 30s drowns saving a girl, and gets reborn in a world filled with people who fly giant eagles and other mystical creatures, as a humanoid with long ears. This would make it the same as any other isekai story, but what's different here is that this world has no magic. And one night watching the stars, he is shocked to recognise the constellations, leading to the baffling discovery that this world is seemingly shaped just like earth, and his nation is located in what we know as Scandinavia! He sets out to use his vast knowledge as a former-life researcher to advance technology in this 16th century Europe-equivalent, in order to save his people from the invading Crusade made up of another humanoid species and spurred on by a religion eerily similar to Christianity, bent on literally eradicating the "northern demons". It's got the usual nobles and academies and clashing armies, with plenty of inventing goods for wealth, and charming pretty ladies. Yet it does so in careful detail, with a protagonist that somehow doesn't induce nausea in spite of being wiser than wikipedia, so it's quite enjoyable, even if annoyingly slow at times. Prose is decent too, by Narou standards. Currently there's roughly 2000 pages of material out, and it feels like the author has made it about a third through the entire story so far, though who knows when or if it will ever end. It had a long break recently, but is back in reasonably fast release pace now, thankfully. Can't find any translation, I'm afraid.
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Sep 20, 2018 05:33
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That title was originally published on an R18 sister site of Narou, called "Moonlight". Basically web novel erotica written for women. So not necessarily what we're used to getting translated.
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Sep 24, 2018 04:47
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I'm kind of with Getsuya here. There's a section in the middle of arc 3 of Honzuki that feels like reading minutes from some business meeting with nothing but reports on project progress. That said, it's relatively brief, and things take a more, uh, action-oriented turn for the end of the arc, and then the entire series shoots up a couple of levels when it breaks into arc 4, which is where it really shines in my opinion, as all parts finally start coming together somehow. Might still be nice with a break, though. I can recommend Watashi wa Tatakau Dungeon Master, if you want to stick with female protagonists in an isekai setting.
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Oct 4, 2018 05:25
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Onean posted:It's not a WN, but I'm not seeing a LN thread so I figured I'd post here. (it's still a web novel: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4147dw/)
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Oct 7, 2018 16:08
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Elephant Parade posted:Goddamn I hate this Extremely Literal Title trend. It's just awful. It's kind of unavoidable, I guess. We live in an age where people just skim ranking lists of what's hot right this minute, and nobody can be assed to read an entire synopsis, so you have to grab new readers with what brief moment's attention you can get. Short titles are just too generic for anyone to care at a glance, it seems.
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Dec 3, 2018 05:39
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Bakanogami posted:AFAIK the manga got licensed but not the novel. I'm always kind of surprised it hasn't been picked up, it's in the top 10 all-time ranking on Narou, has a pretty active fandom in JP, it's english fan translation has been relatively popular, and the subject matter being what it is means that bookstore employees and librarians like to push it. Honzuki? It's currently ranked #21, with top ever being 18 or 19, as far as I know. blastron posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for WNs that aren't yet translated? I've decided to drop Bookworm and am looking for some things to read raw and maybe pick up translating in a couple months or so. These are some of my favourites that don't seem discovered by translators yet: Lapis no Shinzou - pure fantasy story (no isekai) about a young man who's grown up in a remote place, trained by an aikido (?) master, who sets out into the world of humans again, fighting a magic-wielding nobility with his bare hands. Also big roaming monsters. Protagonist rises through the military ranks, travelling the land, often meeting cute girls. Had an LN version, but it died out when the author took a two year hiatus. Back to writing again, though. Zwei Rondo - VRMMO story about a super high level crafter and a newbie girl he's stuck guiding through the game, while searching for a missing friend. Completed. Ookami wa Nemuranai - technically isekai, but only because the protagonist falls through a portal into another world that's just as filled with magical dungeons and monsters as his own was. Weirdly delightful journal of how he fights through different dungeons, taking breaks to learn about spells and potions under an old master, and picking up companions to conquer even more dungeons with. Getting its first LN volume later this month. Author's third series to be published, and he's managed to finish both the others. Watashi wa Tatakau Dungeon Master - isekai about a high school girl who finds herself witness to the destruction of our world, and ends up a Dungeon Master in the world of the perpetrators, sworn to rebuild ours by harvesting their soul points. Bit loony, reminiscent of Kumoko. Completed. darkgray fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jan 7, 2019 |
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Jan 7, 2019 09:42
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Bakanogami posted:She Professed Herself the Pupil of the Wiseman Kenja is even slower than Honzuki, so not sure that's a good fit. The werewolf one has already been licensed.
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Jan 7, 2019 12:37
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:okami's being translated at a slow but steady pace of about 2 chapters a week. Oh, poo poo. Apparently they romanize it weirdly on Novel Updates, so I couldn't find it.
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Jan 7, 2019 19:18
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We've now entered a dark age of culture, as Mushoku Tensei finally had to relinquish its throne to the upstart that is Slime: MT had been #1 on the overall ranking on Narou for like five years, before this stupid anime adaptation ruined everything. Wonder if Arifureta will be next to rise on an animated wave. *shudder*
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Mar 1, 2019 14:59
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Yay~! New cast is a bit sad, changing from the drama CDs, but it's a common enough story.
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Mar 8, 2019 04:48
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Ah, all's finally right with the world. https://twitter.com/pkjd818/status/1106415287748816896
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Mar 15, 2019 16:31
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J-Novel Club has now licensed the Bookworm LN too: https://j-novel.club/c/ascendance-of-a-bookworm/search https://twitter.com/Mr_Quof/status/1107206242043416576 Looks like it'll be coming out fast.
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Mar 17, 2019 16:16
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I've read a couple of good web novels lately, so: Omae ga Kami wo Koroshitai nara, to Anata wa Itta - Probably the most "Game of Thrones"-y web novel I've read, with lots of different characters trying to outwit each other in various ways. Extremely unusual story, for Narou. I've also reread the prologue chapter like 3 times at different points, noticing new things, so that's probably a positive. It's technically about a Japanese guy who dies and ends up pulled into a fantasy world by some divine being with the mission to "kill the gods", but in practice it's more about his disciple, who's a brilliant young (native) woman. Chapters change narrators very frequently, bouncing between dozens of different characters, as members of the Church (mostly Inquisitors) try to deal with his schemes. Pretty dark, with lots of rape implied, so be warned. Yogen no Keizaigaku - Japanese postgraduate student dies and is reborn in a fantasy world, where he helps a cute princess deal with her ominous premonitions, by applying every modern concept you can think of, pretty much. This is probably the most hardcore "use of modern knowledge" I've read, with the protagonist chiselling out the science behind magic, and introducing the world to economic developments like the futures market and treasury bonds and whatnot. Surprisingly educational. Not entirely sure it needed an arc on nutrition, though. The protagonist's great plan is to literally found an isekai Singapore, btw. Both are complete, at around 2000 pages each, although the latter is sporadically getting short after-stories whenever the LN edition has a new volume out.
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May 12, 2019 13:44
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Jackard posted:Is there an English version of either? Doesn't seem like it, sorry.
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May 12, 2019 22:41
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nrook posted:Wait there's only one published transferred novel of Honzuki? Well, unless Blastron took his translation down, it should cover the first arc's three novels entirely.
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Jun 8, 2019 18:04
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i've been reading the summoner is going off and on for a while. it seems like a nothing little wn that consists entirely of some guy playing a vrmmo, nothing particularly interesting or noteworthy. however, it takes place entirely within the mmo, with no real life scenes and barely a mention of anything but the game. the mc's harmless quirk is that he enjoys hand to hand combat despite leveling a job with no particular bonuses for it, blah blah blah, nothing new. except, it's not a harmless quirk. it's becoming increasingly clear that the mc is a hosed up martial arts sadist straight out of baki. Uh. Summoner was infamous for being the absolute longest web novel, for a long time. It's since been passed, but it finished at over 25,000 pages in length. I think half of that is just stat sheets, though.
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Jun 11, 2019 11:33
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I just spent the past few days devouring 百万回転生した俺は、平和な世界でも油断しない, and it's probably possible to describe as if Kenkyo Kenjitsu and Mushoku Tensei had a beautiful baby. Please translate it, somebody. Few Narou titles have managed to go against my expectations quite like this, and the second half is particularly remarkable.
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Oct 28, 2019 17:53
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blastron posted:Is it finished? It’s already at 164 chapters and they’ve been coming out at a pretty good clip. Yep, complete at roughly 800 pages. The author has another title that's been LNized too. Might have to read it.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:39
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Good news, J-Novel Club has licensed Yogen no Keizaigaku that I hyped a while back.
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Nov 20, 2019 22:56
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I've been reading a pretty amusing new web novel, that's quite different from anything else I've seen so far on Narou: ホラー女優が天才子役に転生しました ～今度こそハリウッドを目指します！～ It's about a 30-year-old horror movie actress who dies in a car crash and is reborn in Japan again ~15 years later, this time as a blue-eyed blonde half-Japanese daughter to super wealthy parents, where she reawakens to her old identity after a nasty fall in the staircase or whatever. So now she's a 5-year-old child actress, and dazzles everyone with her skillz. Like, she's going to TV drama auditions and doing ads, etc. Then it also has chapters that dive deeper into older characters who were involved with her past self, and whatnot. Kind of reminds me of Glass Mask a bit. I think this is a title that could be a lot of fun animated.
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Dec 27, 2019 00:51
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Web novel "clean-up" becomes a weird balance issue, where there's limited time for the "author" to enjoy his hobby, and readers basically have to decide if they'd rather the author went back and fixed an old chapter (which they'll never reread), or post a shiny new chapter. It's an easy choice for most, even if I personally grumble about first impressions and future readership. At least there's now a streamlined (?) typo reporting system on Narou, so I tap to highlight wonky bits when I read on my Kindle, and then batch report mistakes once I catch up with the latest chapter. Most authors have graciously fixed things within a few days, so I guess my fellow readers just don't give a poo poo.
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May 20, 2020 21:54
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:so, every single interesting aspect is gone now, replaced by painfully generic isekai schlock. Are you telling me it's not exciting to you when every chapter has "First I washed my hands, all the way up to the elbow"? On my end, I've started reading a web novel that's practically a Mushoku Tensei clone, except with a fiercely devoted little sister (currently age 2). The protagonist has so far invented and sold the rights to produce potato peelers and nail clippers.
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Jul 9, 2020 18:12
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Silver2195 posted:https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-07-15/publishers-comment-on-amazon-kindle-delisting-of-at-least-15-light-novels-manga/.161872 The common factor among all these seems to be that they contain illustrations of girls in some state of nudity. Grimgar had shots of the "bath peeping" scene, for instance.
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Jul 17, 2020 18:56
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I've been enjoying Ougon no Keikenchi quite a bit. It's like a blend of Bofuri and Kumoko, where a girl starts a new VRMMO and stumbles over an extremely efficient way to gain experience points. Eventually she becomes so powerful that other players start mistaking her for a raid boss NPC, and she decides to go along with it. Starts out a bit slowly while she's alone and exploring the game system, but once she bumps into other players, it picks up speed, and around the middle of the second Event (ch90-ish) it finally hits its stride. It's especially amusing reading the "forum thread" chapters, where all the other players theorise about what this strange monster's motives might be, and what the game designers could have been thinking, etc. The author's publishing content at breakneck speed, with decent length chapters almost daily, which has resulted in roughly 5000 pages in less than a year since it started. I found it when it was making quite a buzz in the 5ch recommendation threads, so maybe it'll be one of the new big Narou titles soon.
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Sep 5, 2020 23:07
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Just caught up with Dungeon Sherpa, and it's really nice. Plain non-isekai fantasy dungeon crawler, about a young man who had to give up his career as an adventurer and pick a safer job as a "sherpa", guiding other parties around the dungeon instead, when his alcoholic dad dies and he's left to care for his baby sister. One day the beautiful Hero of the East and her party comes to town with the aim to clear the entire dungeon from its final boss, and our protagonist is dragged along for the ride. Bit of a weird history on this title. Seems the author arguably finished the story in roughly two volumes worth of content back in 2015, and then some publisher suddenly picked it up years later, which gave the author incentive to continue the story, I guess? The LN just had its third volume published this summer, and hopefully they won't cancel it. Hopefully. There's also a manga adaptation out recently. The story shares a few similarities with DanMachi in that it has dungeon-centered towns and a kind of levelling system maintained by a goddess, but not quite as hands-on. And the romance moves a lot faster. Very enjoyable stuff. I just wish the author would turn on typo reporting. 
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Sep 22, 2020 19:46
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darkgray posted:I've been enjoying Ougon no Keikenchi quite a bit. It's like a blend of Bofuri and Kumoko, where a girl starts a new VRMMO and stumbles over an extremely efficient way to gain experience points. Eventually she becomes so powerful that other players start mistaking her for a raid boss NPC, and she decides to go along with it. Bit weird to be quoting my own post perhaps, but I noticed the fan translation for this title seems to have reached a section that might actually hook readers a little, if someone's curious to check it out: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/golden-experience/
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Jan 20, 2021 19:28
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LibrarianCroaker posted:that kinda sucks, 7seas. It's business as usual at Seven Seas, though. See https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/m3s0s0/classroom_of_the_elite_vol_7_revised_edition/ or https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1367434036004683778 for other titles getting the same treatment.
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Mar 19, 2021 17:34
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