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 week after the field trip incident—


"Today, we'll be conducting response training."


Instructor Samantha's voice echoed through the training hall.


The virtual arena behind her shimmered—capable of rendering jungles, blizzards, deserts, swamps, acid rain—anything one might encounter in real combat.


"You'll enter individually. Your score will be determined by how quickly you detect and respond to the appearing enemy targets. As you know, long-range fighters have the advantage in this test. For those lacking points…" Samantha's eyes swept the class, "…this is your chance to compensate."


"Damn. Close combat in this mode sucks…"


"If he gets an open field, he'll score gold again."


"If it were me in a swamp, I'd sink in five steps."


Chapter 63 - Shocked