"Angels and demons circle above me, through the thorns to the stars." "Only those unable to perceive its call do not know happiness." "Watch in awe, watch in awe." "Aeria gloris, aeria gloris." "Watch in awe, watch in awe." "Aeria gloris, aeria gloris." "I am calling, calling now, spirits rise and falling." "To remain myself longer." "Calling, calling, in the depths of longing." "To remain myself longer." "Watch in awe, aeria gloris." "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Laughing Man Room!" "It's a bit of a surprise, isn't it, him showing up again after six years?" "It certainly is." "This is no laughing matter, and it's got the blood of Net Master Omba boiling!" "Is everybody here a hardcore Laughing Man freak?" "Maybe, but none of them have the guts to take the floor." "Oh, don't talk like that." "You'll get hit with a DoS attack..." "I heard that there's somebody in this chat room who has some interesting things to say about the Laughing Man Incident." "Who is it?" "Everyone here, you might say." "Along with some who don't." "What's that supposed to mean?" "My point exactly." "The Man Who Dwells in the Shadows of the Net" "The Man Who Dwells in the Shadows of the Net Anyway, what's the deal with the Laughing Man dying just as he reappeared?" "Anyway, what's the deal with the Laughing Man dying just as he reappeared?" "Man, I thought I could finally become a realtime Laughing Man freak!" "Why are you getting so worked up?" "Nobody cares about that stuff, not anymore." "Talk about stupid..." "Speaking of stupid, I think that getup of yours is pretty stupid." "If you don't like it, why don't you suggest a more constructive theme, then?" "Okay, then." "How about, "What was the reason behind the Laughing Man's sudden reappearance for this recent failed assassination attempt?"" "Miss Kanabi, I know!" "I think it's because the world is still full of crap and boring as hell, that's why!" "We already know that." "My point is that maybe the man behind the incident six years ago and man behind this latest one are two different people." ""Man," huh?" "We don't know if the Laughing Man is really a man." "He is a man!" "According to information obtained by one of my sources, he's definitely a man." "Besides, if he was a she, why would he call himself the Laughing Man?" "Just a minute, please..." "Y-You'd notice if you'd go over the data, but he never actually referred to himself as the Laughing Man." "Whether he did or didn't, he's still a man!" "That was a man in the CEO kidnapping footage, no two ways about it!" "You sucker!" "That may have been a prosthetic body." "Wait, we're getting off topic." "Up until now, his criminal style was limited to corporate blackmail." "Doesn't anyone have any opinions on the fact that this is totally different?" "And yes, this latest incident also started off with a micromachine-related issue, but then he suddenly threatened to kill the Superintendent General." "Doesn't that seem a bit too violent for him?" "Well, they do say that he started off with little stuff six years ago, like hacking the cyberbrain of a secretary or family member and sending e-mails." "So you're saying that this Laughing Man is a fake?" "Don't you think it's a strong possibility?" "It's been six years since he vanished." "Doesn't anybody think this one was just made up, using the net's Laughing Man craze as a cover?" "But what's your basis for saying that the Laughing Man's criminal style is corporate blackmail?" "Wasn't that initial kidnapping an act of violence?" "But I don't think he's committed any impulsive crimes since the CEO kidnapping." "Yeah, you're right." "I mean, it's just not cool, manipulating a person to kill somebody." "The Laughing Man is a super-class-A hacker, but he's never once killed anybody." "Damn." "It was interesting, but I guess maybe this one was a fake." "I guess it's better that way, though." "And so, you've already been stripped of your title of realtime freak." "How sad." "But why do you think that the Laughing Man is cool?" "Because he is cool, that's why!" "Are you trying to tell me he's not cool after he pulled off something like that?" "I'm not saying that he isn't cool..." "If coolness is determined by your hacker skills, they say the delayed-action virus used in the assassination attempt was a work of art." "It was so sophisticated that the police could only make a vaccine for it after the security detail's cyberbrains started to manifest symptoms." "That's certainly true." "On top of that, rumor has it that the police weren't even able to obtain any traces of the virus itself afterwards." "I see..." "But their suspect died." "Exactly!" "The guy who made the virus was killed by somebody, so that means that it was an imposter that appeared and was killed!" "Who killed him?" "And for what reason?" "I know that one, too!" "Because it's a conspiracy by some secret society!" "Speaking of which, according to information obtained by one of my sources, some of the corporations that he blackmailed apparently had a hitman on the payroll even before this latest incident!" "What kind of source?" "Pork cutlet sauce?" "Oyster sauce?" "Why would the corporations want to kill him themselves?" "I'm saying that they've been waiting for a chance to get him!" "They wanted revenge for the blackmail or the money demands or something!" "And then, with this death threat, he slipped up and left a trail." "Even if that's the case, what's the point in killing an imposter?" "He's right." "Even if he was the real thing, it's just not possible that they could find and kill someone that not even the police could track." "T-That's my point." "That doesn't sound like him." "It's just not cool to be tracked down that easily." "In that case, what if he was killed by the real Laughing Man?" "No way." "Like the cops said, what makes the most sense is that there were multiple Laughing Men and there was a dispute in the group." "Which means it's safe to say that we're right back at our first conclusion." "Someone other than the Laughing Man from six years ago was responsible for this incident." "L-Let me ask you again..." "What's your basis for saying that corporate blackmail is the Laughing Man's criminal style?" "Geez, let it go, man!" "Because anything else wouldn't be cool, that's why!" "But stop and think about it for a minute..." "Was that first incident really all that cool?" "I see." "We just can't discuss that topic without looking at the origin." "All right, by way of changing gears, let's look back at the starting point of the Laughing Man Incident." "It's 7:20 on February 3rd, and it's time for Drive Time Weather." "Drive Time Weather Report It's 7:20 on February 3rd, and it's time for Drive Time Weather." "Good luck with your commute, everyone." "Today marks 100 days before the opening of the World's Exposition." "With that in mind, we've come up with the following questionnaire." "Japan World Exposition 100 Days to Opening of Awaji Expo With that in mind, we've come up with the following questionnaire." "The topic is, at the expo..." "That's not fair!" "Look into that camera and tell them the truth!" "Stop it." "You won't shoot me." "Are you sure?" "I know we're all probably sick to death of seeing this, but we need to since this is the only time the man thought to be the real Laughing Man ever showed himself." "Hey, did you see that?" "The show's fly-in title got tagged with the Laughing Man logo, too." "He sure is thorough, isn't he?" "The local weather forecasts, too." "Some rumors say that those graphics were changed after the initial broadcast." "Whatever the case, this was where the Laughing Man incident began." "The incident that shook this country six years ago." "You know, looking at this now, he wasn't cool at all." "I mean, the gun he was holding was shaking all over the place." "Oh, you don't know anything!" "What're you talking about?" "!" "That's what's so great!" "But compared to the M.O. In the serial corporate blackmail that followed, it seems totally reckless." "No, it's not." "Even though he has special-A hacking skills, he deliberately risked his own neck in this first incident." "This reckless performance was what made us love him." "I'm telling you, he's trying to expose the deception of exploitative corporations." "That's deep..." "No, he's right." "Even while he was starting something that seemed poorly planned, he was meticulous enough to hack into all the media beforehand." "That's his appeal." "Man, you guys sure are enthusiastic..." "What is this, "We Love The Laughing Man"?" "There were never any messages to that effect, though." "Hot on the heels of Serano, Japan Micro Industries has apparently been blackmailed by the Laughing Man." "This is incredible!" "What is that, a huge number of office desks?" "!" "It's the head office of Sagawa Electronics that's being blackmailed this time!" "How in the world were all those desks moved up here in a single night?" "!" "It may be safe to say that this is an unprecedented act of corporate terrorism!" "This..." "This the real one, isn't it?" "Please call Nanoplant Industries..." "Satsuma Meditechs is the most powerful corporation in Kyushu, don't you know?" "Why would you go and plant a murder virus in there?" "I don't know!" "Somebody must've hacked the gardening robots last night!" "Get us out of here!" "Look!" "Look at that!" "You know, I've got a T-shirt with the MicroTel crop circle printed on it." "After that, public funds were allocated to the blackmailed companies in the fear that their stocks would plummet, and at that instant, the Laughing Man called an end to his spree and vanished into the shadows of the net." "Remember when Kadoya advertised that there was a Laughing Man logo inside a bag of their snacks, and there was a quick spike in their stock price?" "What about the rumors that in each of the companies, there were people who secretly made a killing off of their stocks?" "If you're only judging by that criterion, the Satsuma Meditechs case might be a scam." "Is that a case of babe's intuition?" "In that case, why don't you backtrack the fluctuations of the other companies' stock prices and compare them to Satsuma's?" "Now that you mention it, Satsuma was the only company that didn't get an influx of funds from the government, wasn't it?" "Well, I'll be..." "Nobody noticed it because all six were making roughly the same amount at the time he called an end to the crime spree." "Well, even that talk show they set up to discuss the threat was pretty lame." "I'd say that it was self-written B.S. Put out by the station itself!" "Looking back like this, even the incident six years ago was full of inconsistencies." "It may be a bit of a stretch to say that everything was carried out by the same perpetrator." "So in the end, should we settle on multiple criminals, then?" "There are any number of critics who would point out the difference in ideology between the initial kidnapping and the subsequent incidents." "Personally, I'm for the "single Laughing Man" theory." "But don't you think that isn't very plausible?" "Any speculation now as to whether the same criminal was behind this incident and the one six years ago is meaningless." "Something tells me that the key to unlocking the Laughing Man mystery is asking ourselves what factor gave rise to both the incident six years ago and the string of phenomena that occured immediately after this recent death threat." "Pretty slick, miss!" "I think so, too." "And on that note..." "Let's examine that question as we look at some old footage that we have in stock." "But before we do, I need to delete the backup cache data that's built up in the server, so let's take a quick break!" "Hey, you remember how that designer named Paul who supposedly came up with that mark... reported himself to the special investigations unit while the incidents were going on?" "He kept saying that the design had been stolen when his database was hacked, right?" "But the fact is, his career as a designer took off thanks to this." "I respect the guy, too." "All right, let's rock!" "Still, why do you suppose this incident became such a big craze at the time?" "It's a mystery that you think you understand but you don't, and a sensation that keeps getting fed to us with amazingly smart timing." "Gee, you do make some valid points sometimes..." "The fact that Serano's CEO wasn't cooperative with the investigation is titillating, too." "To this day, he's still suspected of making a secret deal with the Laughing Man." "But what really attracted me to this incident the most was the crusading, "lone-wolf hero" image he demonstrated in the first incident." "Yeah, same here." "This last incident also began during a press conference that addressed suspicions of the illegal use of Interceptors." "Was that another example of his crusading spirit?" "And it was none other than Serano Genomics that developed those Interceptors." "Don't you sense that there's some power behind this?" "This is interesting, all right!" "It's like everyone thinks they're detectives!" "No wonder they're all reaching the same conclusion!" "What if the Laughing Man turns out to be a program that the entire micromachine industry wrote and staged to manipulate stock prices?" "Where's the fun in that?" "I know there's really a Laughing Man..." "Aren't you just saying that you want there to be one?" "According to information obtained by one of my sources, though, the financial boost caused by this incident..." "Yet another source, huh?" "The financial boost caused by this incident... the financial boost caused by this incident..." "Wouldn't you say that that fact alone says that the Laughing Man needs to exist?" "Since none of you are showing any interest in what I'm trying to say," "I'll put my best information on the table." "Stuff I got from an independent source." "The official police statement will say that the recent multiple, simultaneous assassination attempts were caused by the virus spread by Nanao=A." "It's a complete lie." "What are you basing that on?" "Yeah!" "State your source for that information!" "Again with the sources..." "Out of curiosity, how many times has J.D. Used the word "source" since entering this room?" " Laughed Man:" "Oh, just let it go!" " Mr. Moe:" "A search shows 38 times." "I'd be interested in hearing that, too." "Well, the truth is..." "I had hacked into the crime scene when it happened." "Are you serious?" "!" "Are you saying you were trying to assassinate him, too?" "!" "No, it's not like that." "I was just peeping the system because I wanted to see how it would turn out." "That's why I think that the 39 assassins were also there of their own free will, not because they were being controlled by a virus." "Lots of other hackers like me were there, and I think some among our audience may have tried to crack their way in, too." "But for some reason, every last one of them failed." "You saw that?" "If that's true, it's big news." "You just can't trust anything anymore!" "Are you kidding?" "!" "I thought about going to the hall that day, too!" "Crap!" "Hold it." "Wouldn't that mean that the real Laughing Man was one of the 39 arrested?" "I don't think he was." "The people arrested there were copycats, or enthusiastic fans like those of us here." "So you're saying they were there in response to Nanao=A's threat?" "That's not quite right, either." "Actually, I have one other piece of information." "After the incident, I was diving in the net, and I found an authentication server under Nanao's name that he had tampered with." "That's it there." "You're right...!" "Be careful." "It's crawling with attack barriers." "When you dive to level six, you'll find several plans that had been simulated." "It had things like blackmailing major micromachine manufacturers again, and even methods of targeting cyborg food corporations next time." "What they all have in common is that a modular, delayed-action virus is the key to success in each plan." "But that brought up one question." "The assassination attempt that Nanao actually did carry out isn't one of the simulations." "Why did he suddenly switch over to assassination at the last minute when he had so meticulously prepared so many other plans?" "That's some impressive digging." "This sort of thing is all I do." "Why'd he do it, then?" "Are you trying to say that Nanao=A was also a copycat under the influence of that death threat?" "I can't think of any other reason why he would abandon his carefully honed plans and use his wild card, the modular virus, on an unplanned assassination attempt." "Who made the death threat against the Superintendent General, then?" "You sure love to read into things..." "Let's focus on interpreting just the things that actually happened." "But now that he's shown us that server, his story sounds plausible, doesn't it?" "Let me ask you something, then." "In spite of the fact that there were many active crimes committed that day, why is it that there wasn't a single case of cybercrime aside from Nanao's?" "Maybe someone only wanted Nanao to commit a crime that day." "It was also decided ahead of time how he would fail." "Which sets up Nanao as the culprit behind the Laughing Man incident, which shook society six years ago." "Then who is it that's profiting from this scheme?" "It's not hard to guess." "It's got to be the po... po... pol..." "Hey...!" "You've been giving a lot of roundabout explanations, but I think you're on the right track." "Don't you?" "Did you see my dummy barrier get blown away at the hall that day?" "W-Wait, you're that lady who pinned down that security guy at the crime scene?" "!" "Well, did you?" "Yes, I saw it happen." "That barrier was a nasty piece of work, wasn't it?" "Was there anything left of it?" "Fragments of something?" "Yes." "Here it is." "Thanks." "Don't mention it." "Um, do you mind if I asked you something, too?" "At first, I thought it was the police themselves who were behind all this." "But that attack barrier was clearly different from the ones the police had deployed on the perimeter." "I've never seen a barrier like that before." "Was that really the Laugh..." "Here's a word of warning in return for the fragment." "Knowing too much will get your body in the real world eliminated." "Hey, did you get disconnected or something?" "No, I'm fine." "I'm sorry, but I think I'll call it a day." "What?" "But you never finished what you were saying!" "Sorry I caused all this fuss." "Geez, this place sure got dead all of a sudden." "Let's be realistic." "Even if we get worked up in places like this, it doesn't mean we'll ever get to the truth." "I'm not so sure about that!" "The real Laughing Man might be watching!" "The instant you start thinking that, it's all over." "Or more to the point, this incident is just too complicated." "We'll get bored with it eventually." "I have to wonder if the Laughing Man is just a symbolic phenomenon that was created by some freak of nature in a corrupt world." "I guess we're already copycats, dancing to his tune like this..." "But even if all the incidents were a phenomenon," "I suppose you can't help but sense some sort of common thread... in the initial kidnapping and the incidents triggered by this death threat six years later, just like Baby Ruth said." "I believe that those two incidents alone were caused by the same talented culprit." "All the others, regardless of the scale, objective, and rationale of their crimes, were copies that were called into being by the absence of their hero." "Even so, it's still doubtful that the criminal behind those two incidents who was the motivation for the rest, was himself an original." "Not bad, miss!" "Pretty slick!" "A forced transfer?" "What the...?" "Aw, why now?" "It was just getting good!" "Can't I stay online a little longer?" "Aw, no fair!" "So that's what happened." "What do you think?" "Damn..." "Couldn't trace it." "Hey!" "Hm?" "Did you say something?" "Geez, don't tell me you've been diving this whole time!" "Damn, that's dangerous!" "Come on, I could be asleep and still drive in this part of town." "Anyway, you were saying?" "Oh, forget it." "I'm not gonna repeat myself." "A phenomenon created by copycats without an original..." "Two pieces don't fit the puzzle..." "What are you talking about?" "Forget it." "Tachikoma..." "Tachikomatic Days!" "Is there any data left of that modular attack barrier?" "Yes." "Here it is." "You know, the round shape of this interface reminds me of something..." "And..." "The round shape of your gun port cover reminds me of something, too..." "Go fetch, Frisbee dog!" "Woof!" "This is just absurd..." "Now!" "Make a jumping catch!" "But this isn't a mouth!" "Excuse gets 0 pts, too." "D'oh!"