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.

Even before passing the Imperial Academy's main gate, the whispers began.


"There's trash Lucien." "It's him." "The sewer brute."


At this point, I was practically a school landmark. A monument to infamy.


"He beat up the Sewer Guards! Six of them!" "Ugh, horrifying! Why would he do that? Does he just enjoy violence?" "No manners, no class. A disgrace to the Ashborne name."


Even the Protagonist Party, with all their influence, couldn't cover up the assault on the city officials. Witnesses had seen me smash a guard's face with a rifle butt. They didn't see the reason—the tearful reunion with Irina or the desperate escape—they only saw the violence.


I adjusted my tie, ignoring the glares.


Even after saving the city from a nuclear-level mana explosion, my reputation didn't improve. It was as if the world itself was rewriting the narrative to keep me in the role of the villain.


[Passive Effect Active: World's Malice]


Chapter 135 - World's Malice