23화

요약

한국어 요약이 없어 English로 표시됩니다.

출처로 확인됨 · 버전: v1 · 직접 작성

Faye infiltrates SCRATCH, a rapidly growing spiritual movement whose leader, Dr. Londes, promises that human souls can be uploaded into a digital realm and freed from the body. The cult has been linked to mass suicides and disappearances, yet investigators cannot locate Londes or confirm that he physically exists. After Faye appears in a broadcast and sends a cryptic warning, Spike searches for her while Jet, Ed, and Ein examine a virtual-reality program distributed by the group. The software attempts to hypnotize users into abandoning their bodies. Spike tracks apparent sightings of Londes, but each proves artificial. Ed and Ein eventually discover that the leader is a constructed identity operated by a thirteen-year-old hacker who has been left in a persistent vegetative state. Connected to medical machinery, the boy created Londes and manipulated followers into choosing the bodiless existence imposed on him. The crew interrupts his network access, and Spike confronts the false prophet through a screen rather than in person. Faye escapes the cult's influence, though she refuses to admit how close she came to surrendering. The case exposes a lonely mind using technology, belief, and other people's despair to turn personal confinement into universal doctrine.