Lucien Vale—formerly Rei Kazuki, disgruntled streamer and reluctant isekai victim—stared at the Primeval Sanctum system panel with a grin twitching at the corner of his mouth.

  So, the devs thought they were clever. Trap him in Academy Hearts? Reincarnate him as the game’s punching bag side-vilin? Try to emotionally manipute him into “appreciating” their story?

  Cute.

  They gave him the wrong system.

  “Y’all gave me a grenade, then tossed me in a dollhouse. I’m not gonna cry about the wallpaper,” Lucien muttered, scrolling through the crafting tree. “Idiots handed me a cheat code and expected me to sit quietly in the corner.”

  He closed the interface with a thought and sat down on the edge of the bed, hands steepled.

  “Alright. Think.”Lucien Vale is a minor character. He doesn’t affect the plot unless he goes nuts in Year Two. He’s forgotten, ignored.Which means...

  “I’m invisible.”

  His eyes sharpened. His voice dropped.

  “If I’m not important... I can do anything.”

  He wouldn't py support. He wouldn't try to "redeem" himself. He wouldn't be the misunderstood loner who helps the hero in a pinch.

  No. He was going to be the vilin.

  The real vilin.

  “I’ll raise an army of Eidolons. Not just tame them—breed them. Build hybrids. Weapons. Systems the devs were too scared to put in Sanctum’s PvP servers.”

  He stood and began pacing, the gears in his mind turning fast.

  “They want me to love their world?” His smile twisted. “Fine. I’ll love it like a taxidermist loves animals.”

  He clenched a fist.

  “Then I’ll burn it down and find my way home.”

  But first—he had to get out of this sparkly purgatory they called an academy.

  Lucien opened the system menu again and checked the date.

  “First Year Entrance Day...?” He blinked. Then a slow grin spread across his face. “Oh. Oh, this is perfect.”

  He remembered now. This was the day the new students arrived. The school grounds would be chaotic, the staff distracted, the gates not yet on full lockdown. The perfect time to slip away and vanish into the outer zones where wild Eidolons roamed free.

  “Fake my death, disappear, start my breeding project. Easy.”He cracked his knuckles.“And the best part? I finally get to test what kind of monsters I can make when the system doesn’t hold my hand.”

  Lucien stepped into the sunlit courtyard, suppressing a scowl as the full Academy Hearts experience hit him in the face.

  Sunbeams danced off marble pilrs. Magical banners fluttered. Students in pristine uniforms milled about, posing like they were modeling for a JRPG magazine cover.

  And the gossip.

  As soon as he stepped into view, the whispers started.

  “Is that Lucien Vale...?”“Still skulking around?”“What a waste of noble blood.”“Didn’t he fail his elemental combat pcement twice?”“I heard he tried to tame a slime and it bit him.”

  Lucien rolled his eyes so hard it almost hurt.

  “God, I forgot how bad the NPC dialogue is in this game,” he muttered. “Every hallway conversation sounds like Shakespeare’s theatre kids rolepying aristocrats.”

  He passed a group of students pretending not to look at him while very obviously sneering. Lucien kept walking, jaw tight.

  “In my real school, if you sucked at math, no one formed a gossip circle around your locker,” he grumbled. “You got help from someone smarter than you. Usually over cafeteria fries.”

  He dodged a floating textbook and ducked under a hovering crystal light orb.

  “Hell, even the top students back home weren’t stuck-up anime tropes. They were chill. Helped you study, shared notes, didn’t act like they were descended from royalty.”

  He gnced over his shoulder at the gossiping crowd and muttered under his breath, “Try acting like humans, you glitchy drama lmas.”

  By the time Lucien reached the central pza, the crowd had thickened. Rows of first years stood in neat lines, shiny uniforms freshly pressed, eyes wide with nerves and excitement. Above them, floating screens dispyed colorful house symbols—Phoenix, Basilisk, Griffin, Seraphim.

  Lucien lingered at the back, ignoring the looks. He didn’t care about house pcements or school pride. He was already pnning how to fake his death by sundown.

  Then, the principal took the stage.

  An elderly woman with long silver hair and robes that shimmered like consteltions, Headmistress Avalora raised her staff and spoke, her voice magically amplified across the campus.

  “Welcome, students, to Aetherion Academy! You stand today on sacred ground where generations of heroes have trained to defend our world from the scourge of the Eidolons.”

  Lucien clenched his jaw at the word “heroes.”

  “You have been chosen not just for your bloodlines, but for your potential. Your first trial begins now.”

  A murmur swept through the crowd.

  “This year’s opening event shall be the traditional Eidolon Hunt. Each house will descend into the Verdant Rift and cim their first victory. Remember—Eidolons are dangerous. They will not hesitate to kill.”

  Lucien’s eyes lit up.

  “Finally. Something real.”

  Avalora raised her staff. Magic pulsed in the air. Portals began forming across the pza—glimmering ovals leading deep into the forested valley just beyond the school’s protective barrier.

  “Your performance today,” she decred, “may shape the rest of your time here. Prove yourselves worthy.”

  Lucien smiled coldly.

  “Oh, I’ll prove myself alright.”

  He stepped toward the nearest portal, heart pounding—not from fear, but thrill.

  Lucien stepped through the glowing portal and felt a momentary lurch in his gut—like falling without moving. Light twisted around him, and the polished stone of the academy courtyard vanished.

  When the world reassembled, he stood under the dense canopy of a vast forest.

  It was quiet—too quiet. No birdsong. No rustling wind. Just filtered sunlight dripping through moss-covered branches and the distant hum of magic.

  “Verdant Rift,” Lucien muttered, gncing around. “The grand tutorial. Welcome to Academy Hearts.”

  He trudged forward, boots crunching softly against the undergrowth.

  “In-game, this is the first event. ‘Survive in the wild. Tame an Eidolon. Prove your worth,’ bh bh bh,” he recited. “Every first-year gets dumped into this forest for a few hours and the goal is simple: bring back the rarest, most obedient Eidolon you can find. Or at least don’t die.”

  He scoffed, picking up a stick off the ground and weighing it in his hand. Then another. Then a ft, jagged rock.

  “And of course,” he added, “the entire thing’s being broadcast live to the professors and the students’ parents, like a damn fantasy Hunger Games.”

  He knelt by a tree, tied the stick and rock together using a strip of cloth he tore from his shirt’s lining. The Primeval Sanctum system chimed softly.

  New Item Crafted: Primitive Wooden Pickaxe

  Lucien held it up with something like satisfaction.

  “Most people go for a sword or a spear. Big numbers, fshy kills.” He turned the pickaxe in his hand. “But a pickaxe? That’s multi-use. You can fight with it, sure—but you can also mine ore, chop trees, dig trenches, crack bones.”

  He slung it over his shoulder and started walking deeper into the Rift.

  “This is what the game always got wrong. It's not about damage numbers. It’s about utility. Control. Long-term dominance.”

  Branches snapped somewhere to his right. He froze.

  A low screech echoed between the trees.

  Something was moving.

  He crouched behind a thick tree trunk and peeked around the edge. In a clearing ahead, something slithered out of the shadows and into the light.

  It looked like a bird—but off. Like a small raptor, maybe the size of a turkey, but all wrong. Its scales were dark and iridescent, with no visible eyes. Just smooth bone where a face should be, and too many fingers on each cwed foot.

  “Ah. A Velkryn.”

  He recognized it from Sanctum. A low-level Eidolon species common to forest biomes. Aggressive in packs, territorial, and fast.

  The Velkryn twitched its head—if you could call that eyeless dome a head—and hissed in his direction.

  Then it charged.

  “Yeah, okay, screw you too,” Lucien muttered, gripping his pickaxe.

  He sidestepped the first leap and smmed the wooden weapon into its side. The Velkryn screeched, tried to pivot, but Lucien wasn’t done. He brought the blunt end of the pickaxe down hard—once, twice—until the creature let out a final gurgling noise and colpsed, dazed and twitching.

  Lucien breathed heavily over the body.

  “You’re lucky I didn’t bring my reinforced stone axe,” he muttered. “Wood tools suck for durability.”

  The system pinged softly.

  Status: Velkryn (Juvenile) – Stable / UnconsciousTameable: YesPreferred bait: Bloodberries, Raw Meat

  Lucien dug into his coat and pulled out a wrinkled napkin containing a smushed handful of red berries. He’d snagged them from the cafeteria breakfast buffet that morning—mostly out of spite.

  “Gd I stole these. Take that, overpriced dining pn.”

  He knelt and offered the berries carefully, pressing one near the Velkryn’s pale, toothy mouth. After a second of hesitation, it twitched, sniffed—and devoured the berry in a snap.

  A green glow pulsed through the system UI.

  Taming SuccessfulNew Eidolon Acquired: Juvenile Velkryn

  The creature stirred, blinked—if it could be called blinking—and rose slowly to its feet. It stood at Lucien’s side, head cocked like a curious crow.

  Lucien smirked.

  “Well, you’re definitely creepy. I like that.”

  He crouched down to eye level.

  “I’ll call you... FYDEV.” (Fuck You Dev)

  The Velkryn tilted its eyeless head at the name, then let out a low, satisfied growl.

  Lucien stood, brushing dirt off his hands.