Mu Country.
Capital Qinggu City, Pan Shi Prison.
Su Ze found himself in a cramped cell made of Super Alloy. The only light came from a small, face-sized window on the cell door.
It was his third day since transmigrating, and he had already accepted his new reality.
The good news was, he had transmigrated into the body of a top-tier, handsome, rich kid.
The bad news was, he was scheduled to be executed tomorrow morning.
The even worse news was, on his third day as a transmigrator, his cheat system still hadn't arrived!!!
'Where's my cheat?'
The original owner of Su Ze's body was named Zhao Lingxiao. He was seventeen, tall and long-legged, with a bright, handsome face.
Zhao Lingxiao didn't just have good looks; he had money! As the only son of Mu Country's Minister of Finance, Zhao Yuanyi, Zhao Lingxiao had been a master of "cash-abilities" since childhood.
For Su Ze to transmigrate into this body should have been a god-tier start. Unfortunately, Zhao Lingxiao had dug his own grave. A month ago, he committed a crime that shocked the nation: he raped and murdered a princess!
And not just any princess, but the most favored one.
Mu Country was a constitutional monarchy.
Unlike some constitutional monarchies on his past life's Earth, where the so-called king was mostly a mascot, the successive kings of Mu Country had always wielded real power.
This was especially true of the current King, the strongest person in the country. He was a Saint-level being who had undergone four evolutions and held considerable sway over the nation.
And the princess Zhao Lingxiao had killed, Princess Zhuzhi, was the King's most beloved youngest daughter. Known as the Pearl of the Kingdom, she was a once-in-a-generation genius, seen by the King as the successor who would one day surpass him.
The fact that Zhao Lingxiao wasn't executed on the spot after his arrest was a testament to the King's respect for the law.
In Su Ze's opinion, Zhao Lingxiao certainly deserved to die. But what did Zhao Lingxiao's crime have to do with him, Su Ze?
He wasn't Zhao Lingxiao, so naturally, he was unwilling to simply accept this fate.
For the past three days, whenever his head wasn't aching, he had been wracking his brain for a way to save himself.
Speak of the devil. Su Ze felt a dull ache start in his head again, and it was threatening to grow worse. He was already familiar with this headache; it had plagued him for the last two days as he integrated Zhao Lingxiao's memories.
But this headache was different. It was far more intense than before. Ten minutes later, Su Ze was curled up on the wooden plank bed, his body trembling so violently that the bed beneath him began to protest with a loud CREAK... CREAK...
The metal walls of the cell weren't soundproof, and soon, a curse came from the next cell over. "Damn it, you're dying tomorrow, you don't have to go at it that hard!"
Su Ze had no time to deal with the murderer next door. Amidst the intense pain, it felt as if a lock in his mind had been broken, and some sealed memories began to surface.
In the memory, Su Ze—or rather, the body's previous owner—was lying in a nutrient pod. Through the transparent glass lid, he saw someone looking down at him. It was a teenager, about seventeen or eighteen, with a face that was both familiar and strange.
Zhao Lingxiao!
The person outside the nutrient pod was Zhao Lingxiao.
'But that's not right!'
'How can there be two Zhao Lingxiaos?'
This was Zhao Lingxiao's memory. Zhao Lingxiao was currently lying in the nutrient pod, seeing things from a first-person perspective, yet he was also seeing a second Zhao Lingxiao outside the pod!
Su Ze felt this was incredibly bizarre, completely incomprehensible.
The Zhao Lingxiao outside the glass pod broke into a smile and said, "Dad, it's a success! He looks exactly like me!"
A handsome older man in a sharp suit, the very picture of a gentleman, walked up to Zhao Lingxiao's side. He glanced into the nutrient pod and nodded in satisfaction, then praised the person opposite them, "Mr. Feng, you truly live up to your reputation as the leading expert in evolution in our Mu Country. Even I, his father, can't see any difference."
This handsome older man was none other than Zhao Lingxiao's father, the Minister of Finance of Mu Country, Zhao Yuanyi.
The balding, portly old Mr. Feng laughed. "Thank you for the praise, Mr. Zhao. We are only halfway there. The most critical next step is to copy the original's memories and skills. For that, we'll need your son's cooperation."
Zhao Yuanyi nodded. "There can be no mistakes in this step. Otherwise, he won't pass the identity verification before the execution. Time is short, and we don't have a second chance if we fail. We must succeed on the first try!"
"Don't worry, Mr. Zhao," Mr. Feng said confidently. "Cloning an unevolved life form and copying a mere two Tier-1 skills... I'm confident I can make it indistinguishable from the real thing. All we need to do then is block his memories from the last month, and even he will be convinced that he is Zhao Lingxiao."
"No, 'that' skill must be copied as well. Otherwise, the King will definitely become suspicious."
Hearing Zhao Yuanyi mention 'that' skill, a troubled look appeared on Mr. Feng's face. "But..."
"Mr. Feng, I'm sure you can do it. After all, you are the only person in Mu Country who is an expert in cloning technology and has practical experience," Zhao Yuanyi said, his words carrying a hidden meaning.
Mr. Feng gritted his teeth. "I will not fail to live up to your trust, Mr. Zhao!"
...
The memory ended there. Su Ze's headache was gone. He lay on the bed, stunned for a long time, processing the explosive information contained in that memory.
A moment later, he shot up, his eyes filled with horror.
'A clone!'
'The original owner of this body isn't Zhao Lingxiao! It's Zhao Lingxiao's clone—a scapegoat meant to die in his place!'
Other transmigrators had parents who were both dead. He was on another level—he had no parents to begin with.
Su Ze guessed that his transmigration and the fusion of his two lifetimes of memories must have caused this sealed memory to surface.
Just imagine: if he hadn't transmigrated, this clone of Zhao Lingxiao would have firmly believed he *was* Zhao Lingxiao. He would have resigned himself to his fate and accepted the death penalty, while the real Zhao Lingxiao faked his death to escape punishment and live on under a new identity.
The schemes of the Zhao father and son were so loud, he could hear their abacus clicking even from his prison cell.
Su Ze was shaken by his true identity. He also finally understood why he couldn't remember the details of the princess's rape and murder. He had previously assumed it was memory loss from the transmigration, but now he knew his memories had been tampered with.
As for the last few sentences between Zhao Yuanyi and Mr. Feng, he was completely baffled, but now wasn't 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 he was being wronged. Now that he knew he wasn't the real Zhao Lingxiao but merely a scapegoat, he felt even more indignant.
'But how can I save myself?'
'Reveal the secret that I'm a clone?'
'That might implicate Zhao Lingxiao, but what would happen to me?'
From Zhao Lingxiao's memories, Su Ze knew that on this planet called Blue Star, the attitude of various nations toward cloning technology was similar to that on his previous Earth: its use on humans was strictly prohibited.
This was especially true after the Era of Evolution began a thousand years ago. The power of evolution completely transformed the genes of all life forms, overturning humanity's previous understanding of the world. As a result, cloning technology became uncontrollable and extremely dangerous. To prevent disaster, all nations passed laws strictly forbidding research into and use of cloning technology.
In other words, Su Ze's current body was an illegal product. Plus, he had the same appearance, memories, and bloodline as Zhao Lingxiao. The King would definitely not look upon him favorably.
Su Ze estimated that the best-case scenario for him was life imprisonment. More likely, he would be "humanely" euthanized.
'Trying to save myself this way is a dead end!'
Since he couldn't reveal the truth, he couldn't escape his identity as a criminal. It was impossible to get out through "legitimate" means.
Su Ze thought it over and over. When all the main roads are blocked, the only way forward is the small path that remains, no matter how muddy or thorny it may be.
If he couldn't walk out of the prison openly and honorably, then he would have to sneak out.
That's right. A jailbreak!
But Pan Shi Prison was known as the "Iron Coffin." It was Mu Country's most heavily guarded prison. Escaping would be anything but easy.
His body was a copy of Zhao Lingxiao. At seventeen, Zhao Lingxiao hadn't even completed his first evolution. He couldn't even defeat a Prison Guard from Pan Shi Prison, making his chances of a successful escape zero.
After all, even the ordinary Prison Guards at Pan Shi Prison were Pupa Stage evolutionaries who had completed one evolution.
Anxiety gnawed at Su Ze, but he forced himself to stay calm and think. He was to be executed tomorrow morning. Today was his last chance.
In other words, not only did he have to come up with a way to save himself, but he also had to successfully execute the plan today to save his own skin.
Su Ze paced back and forth in his cell. It was a habit from his past life; whenever he focused on thinking, his legs couldn't stay still. Unfortunately, the cell was too small. He could only take two steps before having to turn around.
'If only there were a sewing machine in this cell...'
Perhaps the sound of Su Ze's pacing grew too loud, as another curse came from the next cell.
Su Ze paused when he heard the curse. 'It's true I can't escape on my own,' he thought, 'but I have fellow inmates!'
'They may not be pleasant to listen to, but every one of them is a 'person of talent'.'
Su Ze knew full well that when a task was beyond his own abilities, the only way to achieve it was to rely on external forces.
And the external forces he could rely on, besides the vicious inmates in this prison, also included... his identity as Zhao Lingxiao!
Even though he wasn't Zhao Lingxiao, other people didn't know that. In their eyes, he was the only son of Mr. Zhao, the young master of the Zhao Family, Zhao Lingxiao.
'With this identity, perhaps I can leverage the Zhao Family!'
After thinking for a long time, a sharp glint flashed through Su Ze's eyes. He knocked on the metal wall and asked the person in the next cell in a low voice, "Brother, want to break out of prison?"