Mu Kingdom.
Qinggu City, the capital. Pebble Prison.
Su Ze stood in a cramped cell made of Superalloy. The only light came through a small, face-sized window in the cell door.
It had been three days since he transmigrated, and he had already accepted the fact.
The good news was that he had transmigrated into the body of an absurdly rich and handsome young man.
The bad news was that he was due to be executed tomorrow morning.
The even worse news was that three days after transmigrating, his Cheat system still hadn't arrived!!!
Where the hell was my Cheat system?
The original owner of Su Ze's body was named Zhao Lingxiao. He was seventeen, tall and long-legged, sunny and handsome.
Zhao Lingxiao had more than just a pretty face. He had money! As the only son of Zhao Yuanyi, Mu Kingdom's Minister of Finance, Zhao Lingxiao had mastered Money ability from childhood.
Su Ze's transmigration into his body should have been the perfect start, but Zhao Lingxiao had done something utterly suicidal. A month ago, he had committed a heinous crime that shocked the entire nation: he had raped and murdered a Princess!
And it had been the most favored Princess at that.
Mu Kingdom was a constitutional monarchy.
Unlike certain constitutional monarchies on Earth in his previous life, where kings were mostly ceremonial figureheads, every king of Mu Kingdom held a certain degree of real power.
Especially the current King Mu. As Mu Kingdom's strongest man and a Saint-level lifeform who had undergone four Evolutions, he possessed considerable influence within the country.
The Princess Zhuzhi whom Zhao Lingxiao had killed was King Mu's most beloved youngest daughter. Known as the Kingdom Pearl, she was a once-in-a-generation genius whom King Mu regarded as his successor, certain to surpass him in the future.
It could be said that Zhao Lingxiao not being executed on the spot after his arrest was already proof that King Mu still respected the law.
In Su Ze's view, Zhao Lingxiao did deserve to die, but what did Zhao Lingxiao's crimes have to do with him, Su Ze?
He was not Zhao Lingxiao, so naturally he was unwilling to simply accept his fate.
Over the past three days, whenever his head did not hurt, he had been thinking of ways to save himself.
The moment he mentioned his headache, Su Ze felt a faint pain start up in his head again, with signs of worsening. He was already familiar with this pain; it had accompanied him constantly during the first two days as he merged with Zhao Lingxiao's memories.
But this headache was unusual. It was far more intense than before. Ten or so minutes later, Su Ze was curled up on the wooden bed, trembling violently enough to make the bed beneath him creak.
The metal walls of the cells were not soundproof. Before long, curses came from the neighboring cell. "Fuck, you're dying tomorrow. Do you really need to work so hard at it?"
Su Ze had no time to deal with the murderer next door. Amid the agonizing pain, it felt as though a lock in his mind had been forced open, and some sealed memories surfaced.
In those memories, Su Ze—or rather, the body's former owner—lay inside a nutrient pod. Through the transparent glass cover, he saw someone looking down at him. It was a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy with a face both familiar and unfamiliar to him.
Zhao Lingxiao!
The person outside the nutrient pod was Zhao Lingxiao.
But that wasn't right!
How could there be two Zhao Lingxiaos?
This was Zhao Lingxiao's memory. Zhao Lingxiao was lying in the nutrient pod from a first-person perspective, yet he saw another Zhao Lingxiao outside it!
Su Ze found it incredibly strange and impossible to understand.
The Zhao Lingxiao outside the glass pod smiled. "Dad, it worked! He looks exactly like me!"
A handsome older man in a sharp suit, every inch the gentleman, walked to Zhao Lingxiao's side. He peered into the nutrient pod, nodded in satisfaction, and praised the person opposite him. "Professor Feng truly is the leading figure in Mu Kingdom's Evolutionary Science. Even I, his father, can't tell the difference."
This handsome older man was Zhao Lingxiao's father, Zhao Yuanyi, Mu Kingdom's Minister of Finance.
Professor Feng, a bald, fat old man, smiled. "Thank you for the praise, Minister Zhao. We are only halfway there. The most critical step is next: copying the original's memories and skills. Your son will need to cooperate."
Zhao Yuanyi nodded. "There can be no mistake in this step. Otherwise, he won't pass the identity verification before the execution. Time is tight, and we have no chance to start over if we fail. It must succeed in one attempt!"
"Rest assured, Minister Zhao. Cloning an unevolved lifeform and copying two mere first-tier skills—I am confident I can make him indistinguishable from the real thing. Then we only need to seal his memories from the past month. Even he himself will be convinced that he is Zhao Lingxiao," Professor Feng said confidently.
"No. That skill must be copied as well. Otherwise, King Mu will certainly grow suspicious."
At Zhao Yuanyi's mention of "that" skill, Professor Feng looked troubled. "But..."
"Professor Feng, I believe you can do it. After all, you are the only person in Mu Kingdom who is proficient in Cloning technology and has practical experience." Zhao Yuanyi's words carried another meaning.
Professor Feng gritted his teeth. "I will not disappoint you, Minister Zhao!"
The memory ended there, and Su Ze's headache vanished as well. He lay on the bed in a daze for a long while, processing the explosive information contained in that memory.
A moment later, he abruptly sat up, horror in his eyes.
A Clone!
The original owner of this body was not Zhao Lingxiao, but Zhao Lingxiao's Clone—a scapegoat meant to die in Zhao Lingxiao's place!
Other transmigrators lost both parents. He had it even worse: he had never had a father or mother to begin with.
Su Ze guessed that his transmigration and the merging of memories from two lives had caused this sealed memory to resurface.
Just imagine: without his transmigration, this Clone of Zhao Lingxiao would have firmly believed himself to be Zhao Lingxiao and obediently accepted execution. Meanwhile, the real Zhao Lingxiao could fake his death, escape punishment, assume another identity, and continue living.
The Zhao father and son had calculated this so thoroughly that he could practically hear their abacus rattling from inside the cell.
Shocked by his true identity, Su Ze finally understood why he could not recall the circumstances surrounding the Princess's rape and murder. He had previously thought it was memory loss caused by transmigration. Only now did he realize his memories had been tampered with.
As for Zhao Yuanyi and Professor Feng's final exchange, he could not make heads or tails of it, but this was not the time to dwell on it.
"I have to save myself. I can't just sit here and wait to die!"
Su Ze had already felt wronged. Now that he knew he was not the real Zhao Lingxiao but merely his sacrificial scapegoat, he felt even more unwilling to accept it.
But how could he save himself?
Should he expose the secret that he was a Clone?
That might implicate Zhao Lingxiao, but what would happen to him afterward?
From Zhao Lingxiao's memories, Su Ze knew that on this planet called Blue Star, every country treated Cloning technology much like the countries of Earth in his previous life. They all strictly prohibited its use on humans.
Especially after the Evolutionary Era began a thousand years ago. Evolutionary Force had completely altered the genes of every lifeform, overturning humanity's previous understanding. Cloning technology had consequently become uncontrollable and extremely dangerous. To prevent disaster, every country enacted laws strictly forbidding research into and use of Cloning technology.
In other words, Su Ze's current body was an illegal creation. Coupled with the fact that he possessed Zhao Lingxiao's face, memories, and bloodline, King Mu would certainly feel no goodwill toward him.
Su Ze estimated that the best outcome would be life imprisonment. More likely, he would be humanely destroyed.
If he wanted to save himself, this path was a dead end!
Since he could not reveal the truth, he could not shake off his identity as a criminal. There was no way he could escape through legitimate means.
Su Ze thought it over and over. When every broad road was blocked, then the remaining narrow path, no matter how muddy or thorn-filled, was the only way out.
If he could not walk out of prison openly, then he could only sneak out.
That was right—he had to break out of prison!
But Pebble Prison was known as the "Iron Coffin," the most heavily guarded prison in Mu Kingdom. How could escaping possibly be easy?
This body had been cloned from Zhao Lingxiao. Seventeen-year-old Zhao Lingxiao had not yet completed his first Evolution and could not even defeat Pebble Prison's guards. The chance of a successful escape was zero.
After all, even the ordinary guards of Pebble Prison were Pupal stage Evolvers who had completed one Evolution.
Su Ze was anxious, but he forced himself to remain calm and think. He would be executed tomorrow morning. Today was his last chance.
That meant he not only had to devise a way to save himself, but also successfully carry it out today if he wanted to keep his life.
Su Ze paced back and forth in his cell. It was a habit from his previous life: whenever he concentrated on thinking, his legs could never stay still. Unfortunately, the cell was too small, so he had to turn around after only a few steps.
If only there were a sewing machine in this cell...
Perhaps because Su Ze's pacing had grown too loud, curses came from next door again.
But hearing the curses, Su Ze froze. He truly could not escape prison alone, but he had fellow inmates!
His fellow inmates might not speak nicely, but every one of them was talented.
Su Ze knew well that when something exceeded his capabilities, the only way to accomplish it was to borrow external strength.
And besides these vicious fellow inmates, the other force he could borrow was... Zhao Lingxiao's identity!
Although he was not Zhao Lingxiao, no one else knew that. In everyone else's eyes, he was Zhao Lingxiao, the only son of Minister Zhao Yuanyi and young master of the Zhao Family.
With that identity, perhaps he could borrow the Zhao Family's power!
After thinking for a long time, a sharp glint flashed through Su Ze's eyes. He knocked on the metal wall and asked the neighboring cell in a low voice, "Brother, want to break out of prison?"
Before you continue