Becoming a Crazy rich vigilante with the correction system

The correction system

The beeping came first. Slow. Steady. Annoyingly alive.

When Leon’s finally opened his eyes,His head throbbed. His throat was dry. Every inch of his body ached like he’d been thrown into a blender and stitched back together.

He blinked a few times, disoriented in the Hospital.

He turned his head, wincing, and saw a man standing near the window. Early thirties, in dark trench coat, unshaven jaw, sharp eyes that scanned everything like a crime scene.

The man noticed Leon stir and approached. “You’re awake.”

Leon tried to sit up, but winced in pain.“Who?”

“I’m Detective Ethan black,” the man said, holding up a badge out of habit. “I’m the one who… uh… hit you last night.”

Leon blinked at him, confused. “You,what?”

Ethan scratched the back of his neck, awkward. “Yeah. It was raining. You ran into the road out of nowhere, shouting like a maniac. I swerved but didn’t make it in time. You’re lucky to be alive.”

Lucky. Right.

 “And don’t worry about the bills. They’re on me. It’s the least I can do.”Ethan added.

Leon stared blankly at him, not really hearing the words. Because something was talking in his head.

At first, he thought it was the light. But the shape stayed. Lines of digital blue text hovered in front of him.

(SYSTEM BOOT COMPLETE)

 User Identified: Leon Vargas

Age: 27

Occupation: Junior Developer, Kiddies buddies game company

Status: Injured / Recovery: 63%

System Classification: C-Class Candidate Awaiting Command Input…

Leon blinked hard. Once. Twice. The text didn’t go away.

“What the hell…” he whispered.

Ethan frowned. “You okay?”

Leon pointed vaguely in front of him. “You don’t see that?”

“See what?”

“The” He stopped mid-sentence. What was he supposed to say? The glowing text floating in the air reading my personal information?

He forced a shaky laugh. “Nothing. Must’ve hit my head harder than I thought.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow but didn’t press. “You did take quite a blow. The doctor said you’ll need a few more days to rest. ”

“No,” Leon interrupted, swinging his legs off the bed. His body ached, but he ignored it. “I can’t afford to stay here.”

Ethan stepped forward, surprised. “You’re not serious. You can barely stand.”

Leon shoved his arm into his jacket sleeve, wincing. “If I don’t show up, they’ll fire me. And that means no rent, no food.”

Ethan frowned. “You almost died last night, and you’re worried about work?”

Leon gave a dry chuckle. “Welcome to Gotham.”

He reached for the door. Ethan sighed and followed him halfway. “At least let me give you a ride home.”

“I’ll manage.”

Leon turned slightly. “Thanks for the help, Detective. But I’ve already been hit alot this week.”

And with that, he limped out into the hallway.

***********

Leon walked into the office building dragging himself to his desk.

The moment he stepped in, his boss, Mr. Harris, spotted him. “Vargas! You’re late again!” Leon looked up,his tired eyes meeting the man’s irritated glare. “Sir, I, I had an accident last night. I just got discharged from the hospital.”

Mr. Harris scoffed, crossing his arms. “An accident? You look fine to me. Not even a scratch.” Leon blinked. That was true. His ribs weren’t aching anymore, his leg that had been throbbing minutes ago didn’t hurt at all.

That was weird,cause he was limping just minutes ago.

“I… guess it wasn’t that bad,” he muttered, more to himself than to Mr Harris.

Mr Harris shook his head and shoved a stack of files into Leon’s hands. “Excuses won’t fix bugs. Get to work, or you can pack your desk.”

He headed to his cubicle, sat down, and booted up his computer.

“Nice story, man,” a voice came from the next desk ,it was Troy, one of the lazy seniors who loved picking on him. “Next time say you got abducted by aliens. Might sound more believable.”

Leon didn’t reply. He opened the project file, His fingers trembling slightly as he typed.

And then.

A sharp ping echoed in his head.

Lines of glowing blue text appeared before his eyes, hovering in front of him like some kind of hologram.

(Correction System Online)

Name: Leon Vargas

Age: 27

Occupation: Junior Game Developer

Status: Rockie

 Mission Available: Expose a crime

Objective: Reveal your superior’s embezzlement of company funds.

Time Limit: 5 hours

Reward: $1,000

Leon’s pulse raised. He glanced around. No one else seemed to notice anything. Troy was scrolling through his phone, humming. The rest of the office buzzed as usual.

“What the hell…” he whispered.

Proceed? (YES)

Leon swallowed hard.

“This can’t be real,” he muttered.

He stood up from his chair and rushed to the bathroom, ignoring the confused look from a coworker on the way. Inside, he splashed cold water on his face, gripping the sink.

“This is stress. Hallucination. concussion. Just too much stress,” he said aloud, trying to steady his breathing.

He pulled out a painkiller from his pocket, dry-swallowed it, then cupped his hands under the faucet for a drink.

When he straightened and looked into the mirror the blue lines was gone.

He got back to his desk and went ahead with his day.

His thoughts circled endlessly as he walked home that day.his mother’s lifeless body,

He needed money for a burial. But how? His bank account was almost empty. He couldn’t even afford to cremate her.

By the time he reached his rundown apartment, his shoulders sagged under the weight of everything. He tossed his keys somewhere on the table and collapsed onto the bed, staring blankly at the cracked ceiling.

He shut his eyes, wishing the world would stop spinning.

But then

(Mission Failed)

His eyes flew open. The glowing blue interface hovered in front of him, brighter than ever. His heart pounded.

You failed to complete the Correction Task. Punishment initializing in 5... 4... 3...

“Wait,wait, what is this?!” Leon shouted, sitting up.

2... 1...

In a flash of light he was teleported into Gotham city,but not his Gotham. The buildings were broken, some half-melted, their windows cracked. The sky glitched between red and gray, and the streetlamps flickered on and off.

Cars were overturned, their metal frames rusted. The entire world looked like a corrupted file.

(ERROR ZONE: Initiated)

Objective: Survive 1 hour.

Penalty if failed: Data erasure (death).

Time Remaining: 59:59

Leon’s chest heaved. “Data erasure? Death? What,what the hell does that even mean?!”

"where the f*ck am i?"he asked,as he stared around.

A faint clicking sound echoed down the street. Then another. And another.

From behind a ruined bus, a shape emerged, many shapes. Small, sharp, metallic. Their eyes glowed red as they crawled out of the darkness in a swarm.

Robot ants ,each the size of a dog, with steel legs that clicked like knives.

Leon stumbled backward, grabbing a loose pipe from the ground. “No, no, no,this isn’t real!”

The first ant screeched, a sound like metal grinding on metal, and launched at him. Leon swung the pipe at it.

Pain shot through his arm as another bit into his leg. He screamed, bashing it until it shattered into fragments. But more came,dozens,pouring from alleys and broken sewers.

The timer ticked in front of him.

Time Remaining: 42:13...

He ran. Through abandoned streets, past burning cars.

“Why me?!” he shouted as he ran. “Why does unfortunate things keep happening to me?!!!".

He ducked into an alley, panting,sweating,running.

One hour, it said. Just one hour. He didn’t know what this place was a dream?, simulation? or hell? ,but he knew one thing.

He wasn’t dying here.

He was going survive.

************

Leon collapsed onto the floor of his apartment, gasping for air. His body was drenched in sweat, his shirt clinging to his back. His lungs burned, and his muscles ached as if he’d been running for hours,because he had.

He looked around wildly. Yep,it was his apartment.

He was back.

He fell to his knees, clutching his head. “What… what was that place?” His voice trembled. “Was that,was that real?”

Then the blue interface blinked back to life in front of him.

(Punishment Completed)

Reward: Teleportation code

Leon blinked. “Reward?”

The interface pulsed again, larger this time, almost filling the room with its blue glow.

System Initialization Complete. Welcome, Host. Profile Uploading... USER INFORMATION Name: Leon Vargas

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Occupation: Junior Game Developer

Status: Rockie

Location: Gotham City

Condition: Stable

Account Balance: $20

Leon stared at the glowing data, his pulse racing. “This thing… it knows everything about me.”

Then another tab unfolded, red and black, labeled (ENFORCER INFO) ENFORCER INFORMATION

Rank: C-Class

Title: New Recruit

Level: 1

Experience: 10/500 EXP

Strength: 5

Endurance: 10

Agility: 12

Intelligence: 17

Kill Count: 0

Leon rubbed his eyes and spoke softly. “Enforcer…?”

Definition: Enforcer – An individual chosen by the System to correct corruption through exposure, or elimination.

Leon frowned. “Chosen? By who?”.

“Correction Protocol…” he muttered. “Enforcer… missions… punishments… and rewards.”

Leon still confused by all this but brought back to reality,by the sunlight coming through his window blinds.

He blinked hard, trying to adjust. Wait… morning? He checked his phone,8:42 a.m.

“What the hell…?” He rubbed his face. “Didn’t I just… come back?” His clock didn’t lie. He’d been in that hellish glitch city for an hour, but here in Gotham, 12 hours had passed.

“Time slows down… in there?” He muttered to himself. “Great. Just great. I’m not just broke, now I’m hallucinating in slow motion too.”

He threw on his wrinkled hoodie, grabbed his bag, and sprinted to work.

When he got to the office, his boss was already there,red tie, coffee cup in hand, scowl in his face as always.

“Late again, Vargas.” Leon opened his mouth to explain, then stopped. There was no point. “Sorry,” he said instead, heading straight to his desk.

His screen lit up, the usual lines of childish cartoon code waiting for debugging. He sighed and leaned back. His mind wasn’t on work,it was on that voice, that interface.

“What even was that thing?” he whispered. “A dream? A virus? Some freaky afterlife prank?”

Then the blue light blinked alive again in front of him.

(New Mission Available)

Objective: Expose corruption within your immediate environment.

Target: Harris cross-Company's manager. Crime: Misappropriation of company funds, falsifying expense reports.

Deadline: 5 hours.

 Proceed? (YES)

Leon stared. His boss’s name was right there,Harris Cross. He swallowed hard. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

He looked around the office ,no one else saw it. The system hovered only in his vision. He hesitated, before accepting(YES).

“Expose my boss, huh? Sure,” he muttered bitterly. “What’s next, delete my soul?”

Immediately, new lines of code appeared on his monitor, flooding the screen with directories and camera feeds he’d never had access to before.

“What the…” he whispered. The System was hacking for him.

Folders opened automatically: Transactions , Personal Expenses , Harris Cross.

Leon scrolled, his heart pounding. Company funds,tens of thousands,spent on hotels, liquor, jewelry, gambling sites. “Unbelievable,” Leon murmured. “The guy’s been robbing the company blind.”

Another tab flashed.

(Evidence Compilation in Progress) Time Remaining: 00:02:30

Leon leaned back, eyes wide. “It’s doing all this… for me.” He rubbed his neck. “Guess I’m not the coder anymore, huh?”

The screen blinked again:

(Anonymous Upload to Local Law Enforcement Portal?) Sender Name Required.

He stared at the blinking cursor. Then, with a smirk, he typed. L.

(Uploading...) (Mission in Progress -Awaiting Result)

An hour later, police sirens blared outside the building.

Everyone jumped up from their desks, whispering and pointing as two uniformed officers walked straight toward Harris Cross’s office.

Leon froze in place, pretending to type as they marched his boss out in cuffs. The entire department was in chaos.

One of the officers muttered into his radio, “Anonymous tip, name. L.” Leon heard it as clear as day. He leaned back, pretending to look confused like everyone else.

Then he whispered under his breath, “I actually did it…”

The System appeared again.

(Mission Complete) (Reward: $5,000 Credited)

Leon blinked, shaking his head. “No way. No way it’s real.”

Then his phone buzzed. Account credited: $5,000.00.

He nearly dropped it.

He stared at the glowing balance.