use strict;
use warnings;

use Inline C => <<'__EOI__';

SV* f(SV* sv, I32 pos, I32 len) {
    SV* targ = newSV_type(SVt_PVLV);
    sv_magic(targ, NULL, PERL_MAGIC_substr, NULL, 0);
    LvTYPE(targ)    = 'x';
    LvTARG(targ)    = SvREFCNT_inc_simple(sv);
    LvTARGOFF(targ) = pos;
    LvTARGLEN(targ) = len;
    return targ;
}

__EOI__

use Devel::Peek qw( Dump );

my $x = "abcde";
$_=uc for f($x,1,3);
print("$x\n");        # aBCDe