CHAPTER 10 — THIRD LAW: THE BREATHING MASK
The Third Law required a very specific type of victim: someone whose public identity was such a complete performative construction that they no longer remembered who they had been before the mask.
It was not simple vanity.
It was existential dependence on external validation.
His name was Jonas Mikkelsen, 29 years old.
A motivational coach with 340,000 followers on social media. Every post was a display of unbreakable strength:
"Rise stronger."
"Adversity is fuel."
"Never show weakness."
But Aurelian saw what no one else noticed.
Jonas compulsively checked his engagement metrics every 4–7 minutes. His hand trembled slightly when a post failed to reach the "expected" number of likes within the first hour. In private, his posture completely collapsed: slouched shoulders, hollow gaze, erratic breathing.
The final confirmation came inside a gym, on a Tuesday at 7:40 PM.
Jonas was "correcting" the posture of an insecure young man who had clearly not asked for help. He did it directly in front of the security cameras—whose locations he knew perfectly—using exaggerated gestures of a wise mentor.
—"What matters is projecting confidence. Nothing else matters. People respond to image, not substance."
The sentence, delivered casually as if it were deep wisdom, sealed his fate.
Not because of the morality of its content—
but because it revealed a completely hollow internal structure, sustained solely by external reflections.
The exact raw material of the Third Law.
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[The Preparation — Three Weeks of Observation]
Aurelian followed Jonas's routine for exactly 21 days. It was predictable to the point of parody:
06:00 — Gym (a photoshoot disguised as a workout)
09:30 — Specific café where he "coincidentally" met other influencers
14:00 — Responding to social media comments (never real conversations, only pre-formatted replies)
18:00 — "Spontaneous" live motivation broadcast (fully scripted)
22:30 — Final review of the day's metrics before sleeping
There was no authentic behavior. Everything was content.
What fascinated Aurelian was the absolute need to be seen as a condition for existence. Without an audience, Jonas literally didn't know how to behave. His movements became awkward, his voice lost modulation, his identity fragmented.
All his "self-sufficiency" paradoxically depended entirely on the constant gaze of others.
That was the precise fracture point required by the Third Law.
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[Designing the Scene]
Aurelian opened his notebook and drafted the full configuration:
Element 1: Black tape vertically covering only half of the mouth.
(Symbolizing that only half of what he said was real)
Element 2: Angle of 30°.
(Deliberate reset of the progression to test whether Alistair was following simple addition or deeper logic)
Element 3: Orientation toward the East.
(Continuation of the predictable directional rotation)
Element 4: Exact timing: 22:36.
(12-minute progression from 22:24, maintaining rhythm)
Element 5: A lightweight, hollow dumbbell placed at the scene.
(An object that appears solid but is empty inside — a perfect metaphor)
Element 6: Lighting designed to generate a double shadow.
(Visual representation of duplicity)
The murder would occur precisely at 10:36 PM inside the private gym Jonas rented three nights a week for his broadcasts.
Aurelian had verified that the building's security guard made his rounds every 45 minutes with mechanical precision. The window of opportunity was exactly 11 minutes, starting immediately after the guard passed.
Enough.
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[22:31 — Entry]
Aurelian entered the gym using a duplicate key he had fabricated three weeks earlier (3D-printed from high-resolution photographs Jonas had accidentally posted on Instagram).
The space was empty except for Jonas, who had just finished his nightly broadcast and was now in his most vulnerable state: post-performance collapse.
The moment the red camera light switched off, Jonas's entire posture changed dramatically:
His shoulders slumped forward. His breathing became shallow and anxious. He immediately began checking the broadcast comments with visible desperation. The mask of strength disintegrated in seconds.
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[22:36 — The Correction]
Aurelian didn't need to attack him violently.
Jonas was so absorbed in his phone, so collapsed in his internal void, that he never noticed the presence until it was too late.
There was no punch. No struggle. Only precise pressure on the exact point of the nervous system that nullified all defensive capacity without producing sound.
The technique had required six months of intensive anatomical study—but it worked perfectly.
Aurelian supported Jonas as his body surrendered, not out of sadism, but for absolute control of every variable down to the final second.
He gently laid him onto the rubber gym floor, oriented exactly toward the East using the digital compass on his phone.
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[The Final Scene]
The left half of Jonas's mouth was covered with vertically applied black tape. It did not represent total silence—but half authenticity and half performance. Half truth. Half mask.
The visual essence of empty self-sufficiency.
Aurelian adjusted the two portable lamps Jonas used for professional lighting, positioning them at precise angles to generate two distinct shadows of the body: one short and dense, the other elongated and diffuse, projected in opposite directions.
A perfect visual contradiction. The geometric representation of a divided identity.
On the weight table, he placed a dumbbell with professional appearance which, upon close inspection, would reveal itself to be completely hollow inside (Aurelian had emptied the metal core and sealed the ends three weeks earlier).
He positioned it at exactly 30° from the table's edge using a precision protractor.
An unstable inclination. The geometric antithesis of genuine strength.
It was the direct signal to Alistair:
The angle does not follow a simple linear +15° progression. It is designed to force you to search for the underlying structure—not the superficial pattern.
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The only intentionally "disordered" element was microscopic:
The lace of Jonas's right shoe—perfectly tied before—was now undone.
Not violently torn.
Not cut.
Simply… untied.
Aurelian left it that way deliberately: a minimal signal that empty self-sufficiency loses balance under the slightest real pressure.
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[22:42 — Exit]
Aurelian mentally reviewed every element of the scene one last time:
✓ Orientation: East (correct)
✓ Tape: Vertical, half covered (executed)
✓ Angle: 30° exact (verified)
✓ Double shadow: Projected (achieved)
✓ Hollow object: Placed (complete)
✓ Minor detail: Untied lace (ready)
He exited through the bathroom window (previously verified route), sealed it from the outside using the same method as in the Leland case, and walked calmly toward his car.
Six minutes of total exposure.
The Third Law was complete.