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.

[NOTE: I messed up a little. I jumbled up the chapter 125 and 126. I mistakenly published the 126th chapter first. Please read the chapter [Broken Clock] then read [Shadow Stalkers]


The bullet whizzed past Kael's ear and struck the shadow stretching out from his feet.


The shadow screamed. A grotesque, black claw that had been reaching for Kael's neck dissolved into smoke.


Kael spun around, slashing his sword at a second monster emerging from Elisha's shadow.


Elisha reacted instantly, drawing her bow and firing a flaming arrow at a creature trying to flank me.


It was perfect teamwork. Almost annoyingly so.


The three of us stood back-to-back—Kael with his sword, Elisha with her bow, and me with my rifle. Mariella cowered in the center, casting a protective barrier.


"Surrounded? I don't see anything!" Elisha hissed.


Chapter 125 - Chapter 126: Shadow Stalkers