Ultimate Choice System: I Became The Richest!

The manager slammed his fist on the desk. "I want that connection traced now! He can't escape"

As Noah accessed the encrypted metadata tied to the PO Box, his screen lit up with a single name.

"Gotcha," he muttered.

"Time to find out who Ghost really is,"

Noah headed to the government's civil records database for Birmingham. The website's security was robust, with HTTPS protocols, Many-factor authentication, and captcha validations.

"As expected of the government's database protection, it's not light in the least. But..."

"Impressive on paper," Noah murmured. "But the paper doesn't stop code."

He began testing the site's defences with SQL injections, exploiting vulnerabilities in the server's input fields.

Each failed attempt returned a valuable error code, giving Noah insight into the server's structure.

"Bingo," he whispered when the server returned the desired response he was looking for. "Your database schema is mine now."

With access to the public-facing database, Noah now aimed for administrator privileges.

He noticed an outdated Apache server running alongside the main database. A quick exploit of an unpatched CVE1 allowed him to upload a malicious script disguised as a benign admin tool.

The script injected a reverse shell, granting Noah access to the backend server. As the terminal displayed the familiar "root" access prompt, he chuckled softly.

"The system skills make it too easy."

Now inside the database, Noah searched for records linked to "Franklin Clinton."

He filtered the search to Birmingham and set up a comparison algorithm to cross-reference photos, employment records, and addresses. After a few moments, the screen displayed three results.

"Three suspects," Noah muttered. "One of you is my ghost."

Using the integrated image viewer, he pulled up their photos. The first was an elderly man—clearly not a match. The second was a middle-aged office worker.

'Unlikely, Very unlikely' Noah thought.

The third was a younger man, around his early thirties with a buzz cut, he had a calm look on his face.

"Found you."

The screen confirmed Ghost's address, employment history, and even a vehicle registration. Noah memorized the details and then wiped his tracks.

After clearing all traces of his activity from the internet café's machine, Noah leaned back. The terminal displayed the final log, Connection Terminated.

Standing up, he pocketed his USB drive, glancing around the room. The others were oblivious, lost in their own worlds of gaming and social media.

As he walked out of the café into the bustling street, Noah smirked.

"You're not much of a ghost anymore, Franklin Clinton."

Receiving a message on his phone from Arthur, Noah glanced at it.

"It seems like it's still not your time Franklin, Enjoy it... whilst you can," He muttered and headed to his car.

As Noah drove to Arthur's mansion, he was completely oblivious or more precisely unbothered about the consequences his actions had on the government's system.

**

The chief rubbed his temples as he leaned over a desk filled with blinking monitors. "Damn it! Who's behind this? Do we know what they accessed?"

"No clear evidence yet, but… it looks like they've left the core system intact. No signs of sabotage. It feels... weird"

The head of cybersecurity spoke up, his tone grim. "They didn't just take over—they covered their tracks. We have no clue who did this, we will get fired if we can't even find that amount of information. Damn it, we are meant to be the best of the best!"

A moment of silence hung in the air before the chief slammed his fist on the table. "Call the main branch. Shut everything down. We're grounding all trains until this is resolved. Get law enforcement and the cybercrime unit involved, now!"

"Attention passengers, due to technical difficulties, all train services are temporarily suspended. We apologize for the inconvenience."

At first, people murmured in confusion, exchanging puzzled looks. But as the minutes ticked by, confusion turned into anger.

"This is ridiculous! I have a meeting in twenty minutes!" a sharply dressed businessman shouted into his phone.

"Why don't they tell us what's actually going on?" a woman grumbled, tugging at her suitcase as her two kids whined beside her.

An older man, seated on a bench, shook his head. "Back in my day, trains weren't run by bloody computers. A bit of coal, a good engine, and none of this nonsense!"

Nearby, a student sitting cross-legged on the platform sighed, typing furiously on their laptop. "Delayed again… I should've just taken the bus."

Outside, taxi ranks overflowed with people scrambling for rides, and traffic near the station began to gridlock.

Social media platforms buzzed with angry tweets and live-streamed videos.

@CommuterBlues: Trains suspended AGAIN. What's going on? @NationalRail better get their act together.

@MomOnTheGo: I am practically stranded with two kids and no clue what's happening. Absolute nightmare. #ChangePrimeMinister

@UnderWatchPlayer: Pov: Blizzards. NERF GENJI!

**

Officials scrambled as they tried to find answers.

"Public relations is a mess right now," a spokesperson said, her tone frantic. "People are demanding answers, and we don't have any."

"Don't release anything about a hack," the chief of operations interjected. "If word gets out that our system was breached, we'll lose public trust entirely. We are talking about thousands of lives being at stake, including personal information leakage!"

"But if we lie and they find out, it'll be worse," the spokesperson countered.

"I don't care. Say it's maintenance issues or a power failure. Anything to buy us time."

A cybercrime officer entered the room, his expression grave. "We're piecing together what we can, but whoever did this is leagues ahead of what we're used to dealing with."

"What's the motive?" someone asked.

"Unclear," the officer said. "They accessed sensitive areas but didn't disrupt anything critical. In fact, from their skill level, they should have been able to hide their entrance. But they didn't... It's almost as if… they were just having fun."

The room fell silent as everyone processed the chilling reality.

As Noah pulled into the long driveway leading to Arthur's mansion, he smirked, completely unbothered by the chaos he'd left.

Inside his car, his phone buzzed with another message from Arthur.

'Dinner's ready. We're waiting for you.'

(Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)