Lucien Ashborne was supposed to be a nobody — an early-game villain who existed only to be crushed by the protagonist. After provoking the wrong person, he vanished from the story without even a dramatic death scene.

When a player named James dies and wakes up in Lucien’s body, he inherits every bit of the villain’s broken reputation and zero of his privileges. Bullied, scorned, and abandoned by his own noble family, Lucien now stands at the bottom of the academy hierarchy.

To make matters worse, the world he knew as a game has no guaranteed happy ending… and the protagonist’s party treats him like a criminal.

But James isn’t the Lucien they think he is.

With fragments of meta-knowledge, a half-broken system that barely works, and a determination to avoid becoming cannon fodder, he chooses a different path.

He doesn’t seek glory.
He just refuses to disappear.

This is the story of a former villain trying to rewrite his role — not as a hero, but as someone who survives on his own terms.

A poetic name for something that was basically a botanical slaughterhouse.


The moment I stepped through the rift, color assaulted my eyes — glowing flowers, crystalline fungi, vines shimmering with mana like liquid neon.


It was beautiful… in the way a poisonous frog is beautiful.


Tourists would pay fortunes just to take pictures.


This was a demonic biome full of man–eating flora.


One wrong step and a flower could chew your face off.


I inhaled slowly — the air tasted sweet, almost sugary. That was the first sign.


I moved along the elevated ridge — enough to see the entrance staging area spread out below.


Dozens of hunters — an entire pioneer team — had already set up tents, crates, portable mana barriers, and supply racks.


Chapter 44 - Mystic Forest