I'll be away from Japan for a while. I'll be hard to get a hold of. Sorry.
All right.
NET PEOPLE Reasons Leading to Flameout
-Where's Major? -I thought she was with you.
Chief and Major are in trouble over the recent incident.
Will this be the end of Section 9?
I can't accept that.
I want to work a lot more with you guys!
You're not even assigned here.
Actually...
she found a very strange case.
Yes!
That I did!
Two days ago, an office worker got his cyberbrain fried.
This was at Fukuoka Airport.
This is the log from when it happened.
What's strange about it?
The point of origin of the attack is receiving a lot of traffic.
The received information is packed and sent to the victim's cyberbrain.
The amount: three million.
What?
Three million hackers attacked simultaneously?
Probably.
But the number of hackers isn't the problem.
Civilian cyberbrains also have barriers.
If the attacks aren't synchronized, the effect is limited.
Someone instantly united the minds of three million hackers to kill the victim.
It's a superhuman ability.
A post-human could pull that off.
Major! How long have you been here?
We've got our next target.
Suzuka Mizukane, a post-human, was spotted on camera.
Where?
Niihama International Airport.
What were the airport police doing?
Someone intentionally created a time lag during ID check.
Is she the culprit?
Probably.
All right. So...
we'll call in Saito and Pazu, and look for this woman.
I'll go, too.
Ishikawa and Boma, surveil the IR system around the airport.
Roger.
Um... Major...
what should I do?
Since when are you a member of Section 9?
Well...
I'm not in the position to give you orders.
Did she have to be so blunt?
You're not very perceptive, are you?
It's her way of saying do as you please.
Thank you very much, Major!
A teacher who got his brain fried for bullying at his school.
A senior gang member who was dating an actress and was caught cheating.
There are many similar traces of hacking.
But...
the victims have nothing in common.
Concerning the three million hackers...
not one person can be identified.
They're quite good, considering they left no traces for me to follow.
Inspecting the site many times is key.
All right.
What the...?
The victim: Tatsuya Hisata, 34 years old.
Deputy director of a mid-sized machine maker.
He's running away from something.
What did his eyes see?
Is he laughing?
I've seen him at another crime scene.
Even more.
He might be the guy.
Did I lose her?
Tough luck.
Koji Kogure, right?
Who are you?
I'm Purin Ezaki of Section 9.
Oh, so you're a cop?
You're just a public servant.
You better have a warrant!
In this situation, Mr. Batou would...
Here's the warrant!
-Peep Hole? -Yes.
The app gives you a third-person view of what the victim is seeing.
If you'd like, you can see the footage from yesterday.
I'd like that.
What are these faceless people?
You went to all the sites to see this?
You have to be at the site to see it.
Unless you're the "King."
King? Is that the main hacker?
Yes, a.k.a. Nameless King.
I don't know what the criteria are,
but you need his invitation to know where the next crime scene will be.
You went to the sites knowing that someone was potentially going to die?
Yes.
But that alone isn't a crime, is it?
Could you tell me more about this Nameless King?
No, I can't do that.
Really?
Shall we start over?
There's no need for that.
Don't tell me that you're King?
I am.
Do you have the courage to open that door,
Miss Purin Ezaki?
A frog?
-A fish. -A fish?
Anyway, let's cut to the chase.
Ouch.
What do you want to know?
About the Peep Hole?
Or about my identity?
First, the full picture of the incident.
In that case,
I'll start with Think Pol.
Think Pol?
It's the system used to create a moral world.
Its rules are very simple.
First, you lock on to the person
who's getting the most hate on the Internet at a given time.
Next, you ask a large number of randomly selected people,
"Should this person be forgiven or not?"
And if they answer "no"?
A negative answer is...
converted into an attack on the target.
So, the identities of the three million hackers are...
What?
The voices of the people who found the target guilty.
For example, this man.
Who are you people?
Isn't he a gang member?
That's correct.
He had no chance against over a million citizens.
But his brain didn't get fried.
Instead, he had his client list stolen.
Four days later...
His run-over body was discovered.
He paid his price.
There was supposedly the name of a famous entertainer on the list.
I see.
Each hacked victim received a punishment that was deemed appropriate.
Is that it?
Yes. That's what the Think Pol system is.
Isn't it elegant?
This is ultimate democracy.
It's not. It's simply a witch-hunt.
What's wrong with that?
Nobody believes in existing justice systems anymore.
The case of Prime Minister Tate is a perfect example.
A former American
who easily becomes the prime minister.
Otomo, the pro-American, a.k.a. the King Maker,
gathered money under the cover of the Tokyo Reconstruction Project,
and he used the money to create a majority within the ruling party.
Isn't this something that we are all aware of?
As soon as Otomo dies, now the PM wants to control the committee.
A guy like that is at the top of this nation with an innocent air.
Don't you find that ridiculous?
So, you fry brains?
If that's the collective opinion of the people.
People sometimes go down the wrong path.
This country has already been going down the wrong path.
Any chance that you are, too?
Shuseikan High. Grade Two, Class Three. Attendance number two.
Shinya Uotori.
Who are you?
Shinya, may I come in?
What? I'm studying.
Your friends are here to see you.
What?
Hello.
Have fun, guys.
What do you look like to her?
You want to know?
Um... No. Thank you.
Are you arresting me?
Why would you think that?
Because I made Think Pol.
We initially also thought that you were the culprit that made this system.
The programmer is certainly competent.
Why would he let us track him down so easily?
You think that I'm just a kid, huh?
The peeping app was pretty well made, though.
You wrote it, right?
Yes.
So, how did you acquire this system?
I found it in the server of the middle school that I went to.
We were accessed by Think Pol, and fried people's brains.
We were the first.
That teacher was popular among parents.
The news said it was a tragic death of a passionate teacher.
But any graduate of that school knew that Yamada was a scumbag.
Yamada?
The math teacher and counselor at Sakanoshita Middle School.
I knew it right away.
Think Pol had to be built by a student of that school.
I accessed the middle school's server, and found the program right after he died.
And I released the program on the Internet.
It's very well written.
It certainly was.
But I was rather moved.
I thought the creator had a conscience.
So, you created the Peep Hole?
Yes.
I wanted to democratize the greatness of Think Pol.
But soon...
You wanted people to think that you were the creator.
How innocent.
-Are you teasing me? -No.
You and the creator of Think Pol seem naive to me.
What is this?
Think Pol has locked on to the next target.
Sir, this residence might get hacked. Please turn off your cyberbrain now.
The PM's residence?
No, we believe you're the target.
I am?
I can't make my cyberbrain go offline.
There are more coming!
They are coming from below, too.
What are they?
It's the manifestation of anger toward society.
Nobody can stop it.
Major Kusanagi.
Step back.
Stop.
Had enough?
Stop playing around.
That's impossible.
He's the puppet of the United States.
He's only received 2,000 guilty votes?
This country is over.
Incredible. Girls these days can't even do this.
I had no choice but to help her.
Although I don't like being wired.
He deserved to get his brain fried.
Yes.
Still, he got his brain fried just for uploading how he got wired with a girl.
There were only 2,000 complaints on the PM, who's accused of corruption.
Yup.
It might just mean the people sensed
that the Prime Minister's scandal was fake.
Citizens unconsciously accuse others and lead them to ruin.
That's how post-humans tried to raid us this time?
I hate countries with intelligence.
The shutdown of Think Pol has been confirmed.
They are trying to salvage the codes now.
So, what happened to Uotori?
It looks like he hasn't learned his lesson.
According to him,
the creator of the program lost hope in this country a bit earlier than us.
He sure is innocent.
At any rate, he can't be accused just for developing Peep Hole.
We've got yet another difficult case to handle.
Yes.
We'll go after the middle school student who made the program for now.
Roger.
Mr. Batou.
What happened to Mizukane?
We found no lead.
By the way...
you did pretty well.
Really?
But you're not careful.
You had no idea that we eavesdropped on you.
What?
I had no idea.
But I wouldn't mind getting wired by you, Mr. Batou.
No, thank you.
What?
Come on!
I know you hesitated.
Wait for me, Mr. Batou!