Hannibal Lecter's office resembled a private art gallery.
A reproduction of Uccello's " The Battle of San Romano " hangs on the wall, its geometric composition and chaotic battle scene creating a perfect tension.
Hannibal sat down and tapped his fingertips lightly on the keyboard.
An encrypted database authorized by Motoko Kusanagi unfolded before him.
It contains thousands of names.
Thousands of Metahuman, following SOMS, were labeled by Vought as "potential destabilizers."
For Hannibal, this was a list of top-quality ingredients to choose from.
He browsed through it as if he were visiting a Slaughterhouse of rare and exotic animals open only to him.
The first candidate's file pops up.
[ Resonator Profile]
Real name: Evan Clark
Age: 42
Identity: Former local councilor
Ability Description
Emotional interference: Can cause the target to lose emotional control for a short period of time (panic/embarrassment/anger, etc.).
Speech sabotage: Causes an opponent to make a public slip of the tongue or behave abnormally.
Effective distance: within 20 meters
Duration: 10 seconds to 3 minutes
Personality traits
He appears gentle and polite, but is actually quite perceptive.
Holding grudges, especially sensitive to humiliation.
Likes to be in control
Dark history/handle
Mental instability after losing the election
He once used his abilities against political opponents, causing a debate to go awry (this has been covered up by the company).
The need for constant "recognition" is present; neglect could lead to a loss of control.
--
A local politician, after losing an election, has become aware of his ability to manipulate the short-term emotions of others.
He used this ability to embarrass his political enemies in public speeches and to make his biggest sponsors obey him at will.
Hannibal's gaze lingered for only a few seconds.
"Desire is too straightforward and lacks aesthetic appeal."
His inner thoughts echoed.
"He was just a mediocre puppeteer, obsessed with pulling on visible strings, but he didn't understand that a true master is one who can make the puppets believe that they are born to dance this way."
He crossed out the name.
[ The Angel of Tranquility File]
Real name: Erin Mason
Age: 38 (appears to be about 23)
Occupation: Nurse at a hospice
Ability Description
Life Absorption: Slowly absorbs the target's life force upon physical contact.
Effects: Delays aging and physical fatigue, maintaining youth and energy.
Limitation: The absorption rate becomes more pronounced as the target's vitality decreases.
Risk: Long-term use may lead to dependence and difficulty in controlling cravings.
Personality traits
Gentle and considerate, with a soft tone that is extremely soothing.
On the surface, they appear empathetic, but deep down they have a strong obsession with "a sense of existence and continuing to live."
View death as a "gift exchange," rather than a sinful act.
Dark history/handle
There is a clear dependence on life force; if it does not absorb nutrients for a long time, it will lead to emotional imbalance and weakness.
Several terminally ill patients in the hospital died earlier than expected (this has been recorded and processed by the company).
A surveillance video shows him touching the patient's hand and whispering in their ear for an unusually long time while the patient was dying (the video has been archived).
--
A nurse at a hospice has the ability to absorb the life force of others to slow down her own aging.
The accompanying report detailed how, as the patient lay dying, she offered gentle words of comfort while greedily siphoning off the last embers of their life.
Hannibal's face didn't even show disgust; instead, it displayed the disappointment of a gourmet tasting a inferior imitation.
"The motive was jealousy, and the method was crude."
"A greedy parasite, only knowing how to take, but incapable of transforming this life force into anything of higher value."
"Her fear was merely the fear of death. Too... commonplace."
Three hours later.
Hannibal leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the table.
He looked at the so-called "villains" on the screen with an almost bored expression.
These souls, driven by anger, greed, and jealousy, possess destructive power but lack inner philosophy.
They are Beast driven by desire.
This wasn't the kind of "artwork" that their boss wanted, one that stood in opposition to "order."
Their evil is too shallow and too blatant.
It's like a horror movie filled with blood and screams, with no memorable scenes whatsoever.
Suddenly, a particular file caught his attention.
This file was marked as "low threat, high research value".
Hannibal's interest was piqued.
He opened the file.
Name: Adrien Dubois.
The man in the photo possesses the melancholic air characteristic of artists, his gaze distant, as if trying to see through the soul of the architecture.
He was once the most renowned architect of his time and the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Prize.
His works are hailed as "symphonies frozen in time".
Capability: Structural Dissociation.
An extremely rare ability that allows him to perceive and manipulate the internal structural stresses and molecular bonds of any non-living object in a way that transcends physics.
Hannibal's gaze moved downwards and landed on the event report marked "Turning Point".
On the day SOMS broke out, a charity gala was being held at the Élysée Grand Opera House, designed by Adrien and hailed as a "modern architectural wonder".
His wife and daughter were in the audience.
The file does not provide a detailed description of how the accident occurred.
Only the result was recorded: Adrien's abilities went out of control for the first time.
That magnificent opera house neither exploded nor collapsed.
It simply disintegrated and disintegrated silently, like a sandcastle, right before everyone's eyes.
In the end, it turned into dust everywhere.
His wife and daughters, his most perfect work, his life's pride—all vanished along with that building in that instant.
From then on, Adrien Dubois disappeared from public view.
Hannibal's breathing became somewhat rapid.
He opened the surveillance video attached to the file.
The image is blurry; it was taken in an industrial ruin on the outskirts of the city.
In the shot, Adrien stands in the middle of that graveyard of steel and concrete.
He was much thinner than in the photos, and the melancholy in his eyes had turned into a hollowness, as if he had burned out completely.
He raised his hand.
In the distance, the load-bearing wall of an abandoned factory turned into a cloud of gray dust suspended in the air.
Then, under his will, the dust particles reformed and shaped into a spire.
The surveillance camera zoomed out to reveal the full extent of the ruins.
This place has become Adrien's personal art gallery.
He sculpted the bent steel bars into figures of suffering people kneeling in prayer.
He reassembled the broken concrete blocks into faces that looked up to the sky and howled in despair.
This is a bizarre and magnificent open-air museum built upon destruction and sorrow.
The camera focused on his largest and most central "work".
It was a statue of the Weeping Madonna constructed from countless twisted steel bars and cement fragments.
The Virgin Mary's form is incomplete.
Her face was hollow, her head bowed, as if she were weeping for the entire human world.
The rust seeping from the steel bars, like endless streams of blood and tears, stained the base beneath her.
A near-fanatical gleam of excitement appeared in Hannibal's pupils.
"The pain is profound enough."
"Destroying something artistic."
"The ideal has been shattered, leaving only hatred for the structure itself..."
He murmured softly, as if he were appraising a masterpiece.
"He wasn't destroying things; he was using his own unique way to find a concrete expression for that unspeakable tragedy."
"This is a rough gem worth polishing."
A rare look of pleasure crossed Hannibal's face.
He found it.
They found the perfect tragic soul to embody all of Lynn's wildest ideas.
He closed all other files in the database, leaving only Adrien Dubois's pale and empty face.