Cap 1

Prologue

In a prison cell, a young, strong, and attractive man, in his early twenties, was calmly eating his last meal—a good Brazilian barbecue with top-quality meats and a soda—while being watched by two guards through the cameras. Along with the guards, a man in his 50s observed the young man with calm eyes as he glanced at the clock on the wall, which showed 12:00.

His name was Edgar Walt, an investigator from the FBI's UAC, responsible for capturing the country's worst criminals. Edgar had worked on many cases, arresting dangerous individuals, rapists, and the worst that humanity can produce, but the young man in front of him was different from anything Edgar had ever seen. For nearly 10 years, he had acted all over the country, leaving more than 227 known victims in his wake.

Diverting his gaze from the screen, Edgar picked up a folder with the young man's profile and began reviewing it one last time.

Simon E. Morgan

Born on February 7, 1997

Son of Amanda Crawford and Adam Morgan.

His mother got pregnant at 17 after a casual relationship with his father, and because of that, she was forced by her religious parents to give up the idea of going to college and get married. During his childhood, Simon lived a simple life, with his father working full-time to support them, while his mother took care of him. However, Simon never received any kind of affection from his mother, who, along with her parents, blamed him for having stolen her youth and her promising future.

At some point, between the ages of 6 or 7, Simon's father discovered that his mother was having an affair, and when he tried to confront her, she accused him of being neglectful and spending too much time at work, leaving her alone without company. Simon's father was furious upon hearing such words, but before he could continue confronting her, she ran away with her lover.

Enraged by this betrayal, Simon's father fell into a deep depression and began to neglect his existence entirely, sinking into alcohol and heavy drug use. For the next three years, the boy lived in hell. Hunger and repeated beatings were common in little Simon's life. It was only when he was 10 years old that, after one of his father's many fits of rage, Simon finally defended himself by stabbing a small knife into his father's eye before fleeing from home.

Alone and unsure where to go, Simon wandered the streets for a few days until he was eventually found and picked up by the police. After a detailed examination of Simon and upon seeing the terrible marks on his body, along with his malnourished state, Simon's father was arrested and charged with torture and child abuse. As for his mother, even after learning of Simon's situation, she showed no interest in taking him back, especially now that she had "converted" and "drawn closer to God."

She wanted a life completely separated from anything that reminded her of her vile past, living a so-called "perfect" life with her current husband and two other children. Simon's father had no close relatives or anyone capable of taking care of the boy, while his maternal grandparents didn't even consider him a grandson, believing that the boy was the reason their daughter hadn't attended a good university and that his presence would now destroy the life she led.

Thus, with no close relatives showing interest, Simon ended up being sent to a small orphanage, where he began living under the care of a group of nuns.

Edgar looked at the boy's photos and couldn't help but wonder if things would have been different if someone had helped, before sighing and continuing to read. At first, Simon was seen as a withdrawn boy, but over time, he began to open up to the people around him, becoming one of the most communicative boys in the small town.

At school, although he suffered some alienation due to his situation as an orphan and his scars, Simon excelled with good grades. Later, he developed a certain fascination for the art of programming, which was just beginning to become a growing market. He formed a small group with three other friends, and together they started studying different programming languages with the goal of entering the market after graduation.

In the eyes of everyone, Simon was a shy but communicative and friendly boy with good academic potential and a strong work ethic, someone who would undoubtedly have a successful future. Someone who had managed to leave his dark past behind and was now heading toward a future full of light.

However, this was only what Simon allowed people to believe. Deep down, everything was just a façade, a mask he wore to hide all the pain and anger he carried inside. Edgar turned the page and stopped at a photo of a 32-year-old man who was found dead in a cheap hotel room after taking his own life. Turning the page again, he saw a photo of a 42-year-old woman, dead after being beaten to death by her husband. On the next page was a photo of a man in his twenties who was shot three times while leaving a nightclub.

Edgar sighed as he closed the folder and looked at the young man, who was finishing his meal. Simon was one of the most challenging cases he had ever worked on. He was methodical and efficient. He left no traces and, at first glance, had no clear method of operation or way of selecting his victims. Everything seemed so random that, if it weren't for the evidence documented by Simon himself since his first victim, none of these cases could have been linked to him.

"How can someone like that eat so calmly, knowing they'll die soon?" One of the guards spoke, breaking the silence in the room.

"Hm. Looks like you've never seen this before. You can be sure that in a few hours, he'll be desperate and shaking with fear," the other guard replied, with a bit of disdain in his voice.

Edgar briefly observed the exchange between the guards but said nothing. Simon wasn't like other criminals or homicidal maniacs. He wasn't a genius; in fact, his IQ was slightly below average. Nor was he a psychopath by nature—he had feelings and had expressed multiple times his desire to marry a good girl and have a normal family.

But the most contradictory point about him was that Simon didn't like to kill or cause pain. He saw it as something barbaric and vile, which, in his worldview, was beneath him. Simon despised any form of violence and torture. In fact, during one of the interviews, when he was shown one of the crime scene photos, he even vomited.

No, Simon believed he was above that—he saw himself as superior to humanity itself. Having suffered so much at the hands of his parents, one might have expected Simon to take pleasure and relief in inflicting pain on others. However, he clung deeply to the religious teachings from his time at the orphanage.

"That was beautiful. I didn't even have to dirty my hands and lower myself to their level. The man did it himself. You know, at that moment I thought, this is it, this is how it should be."

Since then, Simon had perfected his methods. He stopped relying solely on technology and hacking to learn about his targets. He knew that if he acted too quickly, he would be identified.

He also traveled across the country, as he didn't need to be physically present at his job, working from anywhere with internet access.

Over the course of 10 years, Simon identified and destroyed the reputation of one person after another and then left it to them or someone close to them to take their lives. His intervention was minimal and only necessary when he noticed that the target was about to flee.

Even so, it was always so random that his crimes ended up being seen as suic*** or a crime of passion motivated by someone seeking revenge.

For example, the woman beaten by her husband, Amanda Garcia, was actually a coca** addict who sold pictures of her daughters on the internet.

The man shot outside a nightclub, Steven Sawyer, accused of assaulting elderly people at the nursing home where he worked, was shot by the son of one of the residents.

In reality, out of more than 200 victims, Simon himself directly took the lives of only 12, always using a different method and always without direct contact or unnecessary movement. For instance, when he ran over a man who was committing necro*** in a small-town morgue, even though there was evidence to arrest him and many people wanted him dead, Simon managed to escape. Or when he unloaded a gun on a woman who drugged men and falsely accused them of rap* to extort money from them.

In the end, Simon always preferred his targets to take their own lives or for them to be killed by others.

The only reason Simon was caught was that he turned himself in.

Not because he felt remorse—his file stated clearly that he saw no value in the lives he took. In fact, Simon saw no value in any life.

Although Simon claimed he viewed all lives equally, Edgar believed this was merely a façade Simon was unaware of himself.

Edgar built a unique profile for Simon: his delusions of being a superior life form stemmed from his refusal to give in to aggressive impulses. Simon firmly believed that by not physically harming others, he was, in fact, superior to humanity, superior to his father.

The reason Simon needed to destroy a person's image before moving on to the next step was that throughout his life, he was constantly reminded that his existence was unwanted and inferior to those around him.

By "reducing" the value of these people's lives, Simon felt validated. He felt that, although unwanted, he was still above others—he was superior.

"Trauma, neglect, repressed anger, dystopian morality, dehumanization of life, a sense of superiority, as well as strong emotional dissociation and a search for order."

Edgar closed the file after seeing the last page, detailing a man who had been stabbed multiple times outside a liquor store.

Looking at the clock, it was nearly 11 p.m., which meant Simon would soon be executed.

Edgar, along with the guards, approached the cell and looked at the man before them. When Simon was sentenced to death, he accepted a sedative and wasn't too concerned.

Seeing the young man in prison, Edgar approached him and calmly said, "Come on, Simon, it's time."

Simon looked at the officer and smiled slightly.

Simon liked Edgar. He respected him—genuinely.

Edgar was a good man, a good police officer, and, if Simon's research was correct, a good husband and father. That was why Simon surrendered to him.

When one of the guards approached with handcuffs, Edgar stopped him and allowed Simon to walk out on his own.

The two stared at each other for a moment before they began walking toward the execution room.

"Your father died," Edgar said suddenly, following Simon.

"How?"

"Stabbed. After your book hit the shelves and your story was released to the media, some people identified your father and, well, they killed him."

"Hm. I guess that makes it 228 now," Simon said calmly, with a slight smile that sent a shiver down the guards' spines.

"Why are you telling him that?" one of the guards asked suddenly, intruding on the conversation. He looked at Simon with a mix of anger and fear.

Edgar sighed and continued walking with Simon. This was a last attempt to get something out of the young man. After a short walk, Simon was taken to a room where he was strapped to a table, and a curtain opened.

On the other side, a group of 12 people, including Edgar, watched as a team prepared the lethal injection for Simon.

A priest entered and began a prayer while Simon looked directly at everyone in the other room.

Some looked away, while others stared at him, but in the end, Simon's eyes focused on one person—his mother.

The woman was completely destroyed. Her hair was white, and her tired face was full of wrinkles and marks left by time and stress. She looked like an elderly woman in her seventies, even though she was still in her fifties.

Her "perfect life" had been completely shattered when Simon was arrested. Her husband and children distanced themselves from her, and her parents also abandoned her, calling her a sinner. It was ironic when Simon learned that his 227th victim had been his grandfather, who died of a heart attack after being confronted by a mob blaming them for abandoning a child like him, leaving him to become the monster he was.

Simon watched her for a while before looking forward again.

"Would you like to give us your last words, Simon?"

"No, I'm fine, Father."

Seeing that Simon had nothing more to say, the table was laid flat, and Simon looked up at the light above his head.

He reflected on his life, on every moment he had spent over these long 27 years, and in the end, all Simon could do was smile.

Feeling the drugs enter his body, Simon slowly closed his eyes as his body grew weaker and weaker until, finally, all that remained was darkness.

'Now I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next.'