Chapter 1: So I’m a Clone!
Mu Nation.
The capital city, Qinggu City, Rock Prison.
Su Ze found himself confined within a small cell built from superalloy. Only a face-sized window on the cell door allowed a sliver of light to penetrate the gloom.
It had been three days since he transmigrated, and he had already come to terms with his new reality.
The good news was that he had become a top-tier rich and handsome individual.
The bad news was that he was scheduled for execution the very next morning.
The even worse news was that after three days of transmigration, his cheat system still hadn’t activated!
Where’s my cheat?
The original owner of Su Ze’s body was named Zhao Lingxiao, a seventeen-year-old youth with a tall physique, long legs, and a sunny, handsome appearance.
Zhao Lingxiao possessed not only a good looks but also wealth! As the only son of Zhao Yuanyi, the Minister of Finance of Mu Nation, Zhao Lingxiao had been immersed in the power of money since childhood.
Su Ze’s transmigration into his body was initially a perfect start. However, Zhao Lingxiao had courted disaster a month prior, committing a crime that shocked the entire nation: the rape and murder of a princess!
And not just any princess, but the most favored one.
Mu Nation was a constitutional monarchy.
Unlike some constitutional monarchies on Earth in his previous life, where kings often served as mere figureheads, the kings of Mu Nation held considerable real power.
This was especially true for the current King Mu, the strongest individual in Mu Nation and a Saint-level lifeform who had undergone Evolution four times. He wielded significant influence within the country.
The Princess Zhuzhi, whom Zhao Lingxiao had killed, was the King Mu’s most beloved youngest daughter, known as the Jewel of the Kingdom. She was an unparalleled genius, whom the King Mu saw as his successor, destined to surpass him.
It could be said that Zhao Lingxiao not being executed on the spot after his capture was an act of the King Mu respecting the law.
From Su Ze’s perspective, Zhao Lingxiao indeed deserved death, but what did Zhao Lingxiao’s crime have to do with him, Su Ze?
He wasn’t Zhao Lingxiao, and he was naturally unwilling to passively accept his fate.
For the past three days, whenever his head didn’t hurt, he had been contemplating ways to save himself.
As if summoned, Su Ze felt a dull ache in his head again, and it was intensifying. Su Ze was familiar with this headache; it had accompanied him when he was merging with Zhao Lingxiao’s memories during the first two days.
But this time, the headache was unusual, far more severe than the previous two days. After about ten minutes, Su Ze curled up on the wooden plank bed, trembling violently, causing the bed beneath him to creak.
The metal walls of the cell were not soundproof, and soon, curses came from the adjacent cell: “Damn it, are you trying to make so much noise because you’re dying tomorrow!”
Su Ze had no time to bother with the murderer next door. Under the intense pain, it felt as if a lock in his mind had been broken, and some sealed memories resurfaced.
In the memories, Su Ze, or rather, the original owner of the body, 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 years old, with a face that was both familiar and strange.
Zhao Lingxiao!
The person outside the nutrient pod was Zhao Lingxiao.
But that wasn’t right!
How could there be two Zhao Lingxiao’s?
These were Zhao Lingxiao’s memories. Zhao Lingxiao was lying in the nutrient pod from a first-person perspective, yet he saw a second Zhao Lingxiao outside the pod!
Su Ze found it extremely bizarre and incomprehensible.
He watched as the Zhao Lingxiao outside the glass chamber smiled and said, “Dad, it’s a success! He’s exactly like me!”
A handsome older man, impeccably dressed in a suit and exuding a gentlemanly aura, walked up to Zhao Lingxiao. He glanced into the nutrient pod, nodded with satisfaction, and praised, “Professor Feng, you truly are the pride of Mu Nation in Evolutionary Science. Even I, his father, can’t tell the difference.”
This handsome older man was Zhao Lingxiao’s father, Zhao Yuanyi, the Minister of Finance of Mu Nation.
Professor Feng, a bald, stout old man, chuckled. “Thank you for the compliment, Minister Zhao. We’ve only succeeded halfway. The most critical step now is to replicate the original body’s memories and skills. This will require your son’s cooperation.”
Zhao Yuanyi nodded. “This step must not go wrong. Otherwise, he won’t pass the verification before execution. Time is tight, and we have no chance to fail and retry. We must succeed on the first attempt!”
“Don’t worry, Minister Zhao. Cloning an un-evolved lifeform and replicating a mere two Tier 1 skills, I’m confident I can make it indistinguishable from the original. We just need to block off his memories from the past month, and even he will believe he is Zhao Lingxiao,” Professor Feng said confidently.
“No, that ‘special’ skill must also be replicated, otherwise King Mu will surely become suspicious.”
Upon hearing Zhao Yuanyi mention the “special” skill, Professor Feng’s expression became troubled. “But…”
“Professor Feng, I believe you can do it. After all, you are the only one in Mu Nation proficient and experienced in cloning technology,” Zhao Yuanyi implied.
Professor Feng gritted his teeth. “I will not betray Minister Zhao’s trust!”
…
The memory scene ended here. Su Ze’s headache subsided. He lay on the bed, stunned for a long time, processing the explosive information contained within these memories.
A moment later, he sat up abruptly, a look of horror in his eyes.
A clone!
His current body’s original owner wasn’t Zhao Lingxiao, but Zhao Lingxiao’s clone, a scapegoat to take Zhao Lingxiao’s place for the death penalty!
While other transmigrators lost their parents, his situation was even more extreme—he had no parents at all.
Su Ze speculated that perhaps due to his transmigration and the fusion of memories from two lives, this sealed memory had resurfaced.
He mused that if he hadn’t transmigrated, this clone of Zhao Lingxiao would surely have believed himself to be Zhao Lingxiao, resignedly accepting his execution, while the real Zhao Lingxiao would have faked his death, escaped punishment, and continued his life under a new identity.
The scheming of father and son Zhao was so loud he could hear it even in his cell.
Su Ze was shocked by his true identity and finally understood why he couldn’t recall the details of the princess’s rape and murder. He had previously thought it was memory loss due to transmigration, but now he realized his memories had been tampered with.
Regarding the last words of Zhao Yuanyi and Professor Feng, Su Ze was utterly confused, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on them.
“I must save myself. I cannot just wait for death!”
Su Ze already felt wronged, but upon learning he wasn’t the real Zhao Lingxiao but his scapegoat, he felt even more indignant.
But how could he save himself?
If he revealed the secret that he was a clone?
That might implicate Zhao Lingxiao, but what would happen to his own fate?
From Zhao Lingxiao’s memories, Su Ze knew that on this planet called Blue Star, the attitude of various countries towards cloning technology was similar to that of Earth in his previous life. It was strictly forbidden to use this technology on humans.
Especially after the Evolution Era began a thousand years ago, Evolutionary Power completely transformed the genes of all lifeforms, overturning humanity’s past understanding. Cloning technology also became uncontrollable and extremely dangerous. To prevent disaster, all countries had enacted laws strictly prohibiting the research and use of cloning technology.
In other words, Su Ze’s current body was an illegal product. Coupled with his identical appearance, memories, and bloodline to Zhao Lingxiao, King Mu would certainly not have a favorable impression of him.
Su Ze estimated that his best outcome would be life imprisonment, and it was highly likely he would be humanely disposed of.
If he wanted to save himself, this path was a dead end!
Since he couldn’t reveal the truth, he couldn’t escape his identity as a criminal. He couldn’t escape through the “legitimate” channels available.
After much thought, when all the main roads were blocked, the remaining narrow path, no matter how muddy or thorny, was the only way out.
If he couldn’t walk out of prison openly, he could only escape secretly.
That’s right, he had to break out of prison!
But this Rock Prison, known as the “Iron Coffin,” was the most heavily guarded prison in Mu Nation. How could breaking out be easy?
His body was a replica of Zhao Lingxiao’s. The seventeen-year-old Zhao Lingxiao had not yet undergone his first Evolution. He couldn’t even defeat a jailer of Rock Prison, let alone escape. The success rate of escaping was zero.
It was important to note that even the ordinary jailers of Rock Prison were Pupa-stage Evolvers who had completed their first Evolution.
Su Ze felt anxious, but he forced himself to remain calm and think. He was scheduled for execution tomorrow morning. Today was his last chance.
This meant he not only had to devise a way to save himself but also successfully implement it today to save his own life.
Su Ze paced back and forth in his cell, a habit from his previous life. When concentrating, his legs couldn’t stay still. Unfortunately, the cell was too small; he had to turn around after just a couple of steps.
If only there were a sewing machine in this cell…
Perhaps because Su Ze’s pacing had become louder, curses came from the next cell again.
Su Ze paused upon hearing the curses. While he couldn’t escape on his own, he had cellmates!
Although his cellmates spoke harshly, they were all capable individuals whom Su Ze knew that when a task exceeded his own capabilities, he needed external help to achieve it.
And the external forces he could leverage, besides these ruthless inmates, were… his identity as Zhao Lingxiao!
Even though he wasn’t Zhao Lingxiao, others didn’t know that. In their eyes, he was the sole son of Minister Zhao Yuanyi, the young master Zhao Lingxiao.
With this identity, perhaps he could leverage the Zhao family!
After a long period of contemplation, a sharp glint flashed in Su Ze’s eyes. He tapped on the metal wall and whispered to the adjacent cell, “Brother, want to escape?”
