Chapter 5: Leveling Up Justice

Chapter 5: Leveling Up Justice

Léo’s apartment was a cramped, cluttered space on the fourth floor of a walk-up that always smelled faintly of garlic and old plumbing. It was his sanctuary, a testament to a life lived on the razor's edge of a budget. Engineering textbooks formed precarious towers on his small desk, competing for space with a collection of greasy tools he used to perform emergency surgery on his Peugeot. Empty instant noodle cups stood in a neat row by the sink, a monument to his culinary priorities. This tiny room, with its lumpy mattress and single window overlooking a noisy alleyway, was his entire world.

He collapsed onto the bed, the springs groaning in protest. His body was boneless with exhaustion, but his mind was a supernova. The afternoon had been a frantic, high-stakes race against the clock. He had sprinted from Moreau’s office to the university’s computer lab, the professor’s ultimatum echoing in his ears.

The System’s clue—check the digital metadata—had been his North Star. He’d downloaded Antoine Fournier’s project submission from the university server, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Opening the PDF’s properties, he’d found it. Buried in the file’s details, under the ‘Author’ field, was not ‘Antoine Fournier’. It was ‘Dr. Klaus Richter’.

A quick search had revealed Dr. Richter to be a professor at the Technical University of Munich, who had published a paper two years prior that was, paragraph for paragraph, identical to Fournier’s "original" work. Fournier hadn’t even bothered to change the file’s original author tag. It was the kind of lazy, arrogant mistake only someone who had never faced consequences could make.

Léo had printed everything: a screenshot of the metadata, the first page of Dr. Richter’s paper, and the first page of Fournier’s submission. The evidence was ironclad, a prosecutor’s dream.

He’d walked back into Professor Moreau’s office at 4:58 PM, two minutes before the deadline. He didn’t speak. He simply laid the three sheets of paper on the vast oak desk.

Moreau had picked them up, his expression unreadable. He read them once, then a second time. A deep, glacial stillness settled over the room. The professor’s legendary control was absolute, but Léo could see a muscle twitching in his jaw. It wasn't anger at Léo. It was a cold, pure fury directed at the intellectual sacrilege Fournier had committed.

“Mr. Dubois,” Moreau had said after a long, terrible silence, his voice lethally soft. “The failing grade has been rescinded. Your scholarship is no longer in jeopardy. I will be dealing with Mr. Fournier personally. I suggest you attend tomorrow’s lecture.” He had paused, looking Léo directly in the eye. “And do not be late again.”

There was no praise, no apology. There was only a transaction. Léo had provided a result, and Moreau, a man who respected results above all else, had honored his end of the bargain. It was more than enough.

Now, lying in his cluttered room, the reality of it all crashed over him. He had faced down the most feared professor at the university, exposed a cheat, and saved his own future. He had won. The feeling was intoxicating, a potent cocktail of relief and power that made the lingering buzz from his +1 Agility feel like a distant echo.

As if on cue, the familiar blue screen shimmered into existence before him, far grander and more brilliant than before.

[High-Stakes Mission: The Plagiarist's Gambit - SUCCESS!] [A grave intellectual injustice has been rectified. The sanctity of the discipline has been preserved. The universe is pleased.]

[Rewards Processing...] [+150 Karma Points!] [+2 Intelligence Points!] [New Skill Acquired: [Investigative Eye] Lv. 1 - You have a knack for spotting inconsistencies and details others might miss.]

Léo felt a sudden, sharp clarity wash over his mind. It was as if a fog he never knew was there had lifted. The complex equations in his textbooks seemed simpler, the relationships between systems and forces more intuitive. The +2 Intelligence was real, a tangible upgrade to his own mind.

But the System wasn’t finished.

[Sufficient Karma and Experience Gained.] [DIVINE RETRIBUTION SYSTEM IS LEVELING UP...] [PLEASE STAND BY...]

The blue screen dissolved into a cascade of glowing code, swirling and reconfiguring itself in front of his eyes. New symbols and icons resolved out of the chaos. When it solidified again, the interface was different. Sleeker. More complex.

[System Reboot Complete. Welcome, Apprentice Vindicator.] [Player Level: 2] [New Features Unlocked!]

[1. The Karma Shop:]

• Spend your hard-earned Karma Points (KP) on unique skills, temporary buffs, and useful items. Justice isn’t free, but it can be well-equipped.
• Current Balance: 171 KP.

[2. The Justice Map:]

• Your perception has been attuned to the frequencies of injustice. You may now view a real-time map of your immediate vicinity, highlighting active sources of karmic imbalance (potential missions).

[3. Inventory System:]

• A dedicated subspace to store System-generated items.
• Current Items: [Lucky Coin] (x1).

Léo sat up, his weariness completely forgotten. Apprentice Vindicator. A shiver went down his spine. This was so much more than just getting back at bullies. This was an entire framework, a game with rules and rewards, laid over the top of reality.

Driven by a burning curiosity, he focused his thoughts on the Karma Shop. A menu unfurled in his vision, displaying a list of items and their costs.

• Skill: [Minor Lockpicking] Lv. 1 - 250 KP
• Item: [Inconspicuous Crowbar] (Single Use) - 75 KP
• Buff: [Silver Tongue] (Duration: 10 mins) - Persuade one person of a minor falsehood. - 120 KP
• Upgrade: [Petty Larceny] Lv. 2 - 100 KP

The prices were steep, far beyond his current balance, but they ignited his imagination. The possibilities were staggering.

Then, he focused on the most intriguing new feature: the Justice Map.

He stood and walked to his small window. The view was unremarkable: a patchwork of terracotta roofs, satellite dishes, and clotheslines strung between buildings. The sounds of the city—the distant wail of a siren, the rumble of scooters, the murmur of conversations from the street below—drifted up to him. He had always seen Marseille as a place to survive, a maze of obstacles between him and his degree.

He thought, Show me the map.

Instantly, his vision was overlaid with a translucent, glowing grid. The streets and buildings he was looking at became a wireframe schematic. And on that map, scattered across the neighborhood, were pulsating points of light. Most were a faint, gentle white, but a few blocks away, one glowed with a malevolent, angry red.

He zoomed in with a thought, the map resolving with startling detail. The red dot was centered on a high-end restaurant, Le Dôme.

[Injustice Detected: Wage Theft and Exploitation.] [Details: Restaurant owner is systematically altering employee timecards to avoid paying overtime. Grade-C Injustice.] [Mission Generation Possible.]

Another dot, this one a sickly yellow, pulsed over a nearby apartment complex.

[Injustice Detected: Animal Neglect.] [Details: A dog has been left on a balcony with no food or water for over 48 hours. Grade-D Injustice.]

Léo stared, his breath catching in his throat. He was no longer just a student in a shabby apartment. He was a Vindicator, looking at his new domain. The city wasn't a backdrop anymore. It was a living entity, filled with countless stories of unfairness, both large and small, all waiting for a correction. Sandrine and Fournier weren't anomalies; they were just the beginning.

He looked from the glowing map to his own reflection in the dark glass of the window. The same tired face, the same worn-out hoodie. But his eyes were different. The perpetual anxiety that had clouded them for years was gone, replaced by a sharp, focused intensity.

He was no longer just a struggling student trying to escape his circumstances. The System hadn't given him an escape. It had given him a purpose. The entire city was a new kind of test, and he was ready to start studying.