Dominion of Arden — Crestfall City — Ironhold Penitentiary

  Evan Cole sat in a cramped cell built from reinforced alloy, the only light slipping through a palm?sized window in the steel door.

  Three days had passed since he woke up in this world, and he’d finally accepted the truth: he had transmigrated.

  The good news? He’d landed in the body of a wealthy, good?looking golden boy.

  The bad news? He was scheduled for execution tomorrow morning.

  The even worse news? The “system” he was promised still hadn’t shown up.

  Where was his cheat?

  The original owner of this body was Liam Zhao, seventeen, tall, athletic, and irritatingly handsome. And not just handsome — rich. As the only son of Elias Zhao, Arden’s Secretary of Finance, Liam had grown up fluent in the language of money.

  Evan thought he’d lucked out… until he learned Liam had committed a crime so shocking it shook the entire nation: the assault and murder of a princess.

  And not just any princess — the king’s favorite daughter.

  Arden was a constitutional monarchy, but unlike the ceremonial monarchies Evan knew from his previous world, Arden’s kings held real power. The current king, a four?time evolved Saint?tier lifeform, was the strongest being in the country.

  The murdered Princess Seraphine was his youngest child, the “Jewel of the Kingdom,” a once?in?a?generation prodigy the king believed would one day surpass him.

  Honestly, the fact Liam wasn’t executed on the spot was already the king being “merciful.”

  Evan agreed Liam deserved death. But what did Liam’s crime have to do with him?

  He wasn’t Liam. He had no intention of dying for someone else’s sins.

  For three days, whenever his head wasn’t splitting open, he’d been trying to figure out how to survive.

  And right on cue, the headache returned — sharper, deeper, worse than before. Within minutes, Evan curled up on the wooden cot, trembling so hard the frame creaked beneath him.

  The metal walls weren’t soundproof. A voice from the next cell shouted, “Dude, you’re dying tomorrow, not auditioning for a horror movie!”

  Evan ignored the lunatic next door. The pain tore through him — and then something snapped open in his mind. A lock. A seal.

  Memories surged up.

  He — or rather, the original owner — lay inside a nutrient pod, staring through the glass at a teenage boy with a face both familiar and foreign.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Liam Zhao.

  The boy outside the pod was Liam.

  But that made no sense.

  This was Liam’s memory. Liam was inside the pod. So who was the Liam standing outside?

  A chill crawled up Evan’s spine.

  The Liam outside the pod smiled. “Dad, it worked. He looks exactly like me.”

  A sharply dressed, distinguished man stepped beside him — Elias Zhao, Arden’s Secretary of Finance.

  He examined the figure inside the pod and nodded with satisfaction. “Professor Vaughn, you truly are the leading expert in evolutionary genetics. Even I can’t tell them apart.”

  The balding, heavyset Professor Vaughn chuckled. “Thank you, Minister. But this is only half the process. Next we copy the original’s memories and abilities. Your son will need to cooperate.”

  Elias nodded gravely. “This step must not fail. If the clone can’t pass identity verification before the execution, everything collapses. We only get one chance.”

  “Don’t worry,” Vaughn said confidently. “Cloning an unevolved lifeform and duplicating two basic?tier abilities is well within my capability. Once we block his memories from the past month, even he will believe he’s the real Liam.”

  “No,” Elias interrupted. “Copy that ability too. Otherwise the king will notice.”

  Vaughn hesitated. “That one is… difficult.”

  “Professor,” Elias said softly, “you’re the only person in Arden with the skill to do this.”

  Vaughn clenched his jaw. “I won’t fail you.”

  The memory ended.

  The pain vanished.

  Evan lay frozen, processing the truth.

  Then he shot upright, eyes wide.

  A clone.

  He wasn’t Liam Zhao. He was Liam’s clone — created to take Liam’s place on the execution platform.

  Other transmigrators lost their parents. He never had any to begin with.

  The fusion of his two lives’ memories must have broken the seal hiding the truth. Without transmigration, the clone would have believed he was Liam and walked willingly to his death, while the real Liam escaped punishment under a new identity.

  No wonder he couldn’t remember the details of the princess’s murder — the memories had been tampered with.

  As for the cryptic lines about “that ability,” he didn’t have time to unpack them.

  “I have to save myself. I’m not dying for someone else.”

  But how?

  Expose the truth? Sure — and then what?

  Cloning was illegal across the entire planet of Blue Star, especially after the Evolution Era began a thousand years ago. Genetic instability made human cloning dangerously unpredictable. Every nation banned it outright.

  Meaning Evan’s very existence was a crime.

  And since he looked exactly like Liam, shared his blood, and carried his memories, the king would never show mercy.

  Best case: life imprisonment. More likely: disposal.

  So that path was dead.

  If he couldn’t clear his name, he couldn’t walk out of prison legally.

  Which left only one option:

  Escape.

  Ironhold Penitentiary wasn’t nicknamed the “Iron Coffin” for nothing. Its guards were all first?tier evolved lifeforms. Evan — a seventeen?year?old unevolved clone — couldn’t beat even one of them.

  He paced the tiny cell, mind racing. Tomorrow morning was the execution. Today was his last chance.

  He needed help.

  And he had two sources of leverage:

  The dangerous criminals locked up around him. Liam Zhao’s identity — which everyone still believed he possessed.

  After a long moment, Evan’s eyes sharpened.

  He knocked on the metal wall and whispered toward the next cell:

  “Hey. You want to break out of here?”