Laughing Man
The , , is an anti-corporate terrorist hacker, who ultimately reveals to the Major that he had discovered that several micromachine manufacturing corporations, in association with the Japanese government, suppressed information on an inexpensive cure to a debilitating cyberization disease in order to profit from the more expensive micromachine treatment. He also had a fascination with J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", his own alias coming from Salinger's short story, "The Laughing Man". He is an expert hacker, able to hide his physical presence by editing himself out of video feeds and cybernetic eyes, concealing his identity by superimposing an animated logo over his face, and hijacking cybernetic brains altogether, all in real-time. The "Complex" story arc of "" focuses on the Laughing Man case, and on a medical/governmental conspiracy tied into the fate of the Laughing Man.