After Crossing Over, I Marked the Empress

It was now 4 AM, the coldest time before dawn.

The waning moon hung in the sky, casting an especially desolate light over the long-decayed abandoned theater.

Shen Han, Ning Xi, and Gu Yuwei, having just experienced a harrowing escape and intense battle, were walking towards where their SUV was parked.

Shen Han and Ning Xi, both well-trained S-class Alphas, felt mentally exhausted but still had decent physical stamina.

Gu Yuwei, however, was struggling.

Though A-class Alphas were also high-ranking, she had never endured such hardship before.

Moreover, she normally focused her energy on studying and handling political affairs.

Having just returned from the brink of death, she was utterly exhausted and in pain all over.

She hadn’t been injured much during the road attack and car flip, but ironically, she’d taken a big tumble due to a misunderstanding from her own allies.

Gu Yuwei didn’t dare pull up her pant legs or sleeves to check, but she was sure she had bruises in several places.

As the three walked, suddenly a bright flash appeared in the grass ahead.

It moved so quickly that even Shen Han’s reflexes couldn’t discern what it was.

The advantages of professional special training for the guard team became apparent at this moment.

The instant she sensed danger approaching, Shen Han had already pulled Gu Yuwei to start retreating quickly.

Her weapon was back in front, ready to fire at any moment.

Ning Xi, without the concern of protecting a target, chose to attack directly.

“Bang bang bang bang!”

The small handgun was well-suited for close combat.

Unexpectedly, all of Ning Xi’s bullets hit empty air.

Her wrist had been caught by a hand before she could pull the trigger. The hand’s owner controlled her wrist and neck, changing the gun’s original aim away from himself.

Simultaneously, the attacker’s other hand swung straight for Ning Xi’s throat.

In that split second, Ning Xi finally saw clearly that the bright flash she’d seen earlier was a blade!

Seeing the attacker about to slash her throat, her pupils constricted as she released her pheromones in full force.

As she kicked forward, her head and body also leaned back sharply.

The blade’s edge passed mere millimeters from Ning Xi’s nose.

In that instant, she seemed to smell the faint metallic scent on the blade.

With the slash missing its mark, the short knife swung downward, stabbing into Ning Xi’s shoulder blade.

Sharp pain struck her, and as Ning Xi fell, her head hit a rock, knocking her unconscious.

This deadly exchange, though lengthy to describe, occurred in the blink of an eye.

In this short span, Shen Han had only managed to retreat two meters with Gu Yuwei.

Seeing Ning Xi stabbed and fall, Shen Han immediately pulled the trigger.

She hadn’t done so earlier because the attacker had been mostly hidden behind Ning Xi’s body.

Now that they were separated, she had no more reservations.

Surprisingly, Shen Han, who rarely missed, couldn’t maintain her usual hit rate against this ghostly attacker.

‘Not good! His tactical glasses help him avoid bullet trajectories.’

‘Moreover, he’s clearly a skilled hand-to-hand fighter!’

Shen Han fired while retreating with Gu Yuwei towards the theater.

She had two considerations at this moment.

First, with Ning Xi injured and out of the fight, she couldn’t stay here battling the opponent, lest he seize the chance to finish off her good friend.

Second, if guns couldn’t resolve the situation, it would inevitably come down to close combat, and the broken stage in the theater would be more advantageous for utilizing her strengths.

In their brief exchange, Shen Han clearly saw her opponent’s appearance.

He was a tall, large-built man wearing a baseball cap.

Half his face looked as if it had been burned by intense fire, the wound area large, making him appear like some kind of irradiated bio-monster.

On his other half-face hung a single tactical lens.

Shen Han had no time to observe more details.

After emptying her submachine gun, she had no more magazines to reload.

Shen Han unclipped the strap with one hand, tossing the gun aside, then grabbed the back of Gu Yuwei’s collar and started sprinting towards the stage.

Fleeing while protecting someone inevitably slowed one down – this was an iron law no one could change.

But dragging an object while running was different.

Shen Han ran like the wind, and the pursuer behind failed to catch up even after two bursts of speed.

Gu Yuwei, meanwhile, was on the verge of tears.

She felt less like she was being helped to run and more like she was being dragged down the street by a car!

Her feet were airborne half the time, her shoes long since knocked off.

Countless grass stems whipped her feet and ankles like vines.

But worst of all was her neck.

At one point, she even felt she might suffocate!

But Gu Yuwei knew her current situation was extremely dangerous. Comfort could only be bought with her life.

So she endured without a sound, to avoid distracting her protector.

Just then, the pursuer behind suddenly raised his arm in a throwing motion.

Gu Yuwei, dizzy from being dragged, couldn’t see clearly. She only heard the whistle of something cutting through the air towards her.

Shen Han’s ears twitched. Gritting her teeth, she swung her arm in a full circle, forcefully throwing Gu Yuwei onto the stage ahead.

Simultaneously, she drew her handgun from her right waist, turning in mid-air to rapidly fire back.

However, the baseball cap who had been chasing right behind her had suddenly vanished.

“Ugh!”

“Heh, did you think I’d be fooled by your earlier gun-tossing act?”

Gu Yuwei’s retching and the baseball cap’s mocking voice sounded simultaneously.

On this dim theater stage, it created a somewhat absurd effect.

It felt like a cold-blooded assassin’s self-aggrandizing monologue suddenly interrupted by a background of booing.

Shen Han ran to Gu Yuwei’s side in a few steps, helping her up while quietly comforting her: “Don’t be afraid. It seems he doesn’t plan to use firearms. This is our chance.”

Gu Yuwei was now disheveled, one sock missing, barely able to stand.

When thrown onto the stage earlier, though she’d successfully avoided the enemy’s flying knife, she’d unfortunately knocked out a front tooth.

Now her speech was slightly whistling.

“I’m not afraid. Is there anything you need me to do?”

Shen Han shook her head at her, helping her sit down to the side.

“Rest for a bit. Check if there’s anything blocking your throat. If so, try to cough it out quickly.”

After speaking, she pulled out the short knife the enemy had embedded in the stage’s wooden floor, turning to face the baseball cap who had just stepped onto the stage.

The baseball cap’s codename was Red Fox.

Looking at the Alpha before him, old and new grudges surged, igniting raging flames in his eyes.

The last time he carried out the mission to hunt down Tang Yucai, it was because of her existence that they ended up nearly completely wiped out.

And now, the same thing was happening!

Setting aside the mission, the person he most wanted to kill right now wasn’t Gu Yuwei, but the Alpha before him.

Though Shen Han trained most with firearms, she had never neglected her hand-to-hand combat skills.

She had been quite proficient even before her transmigration.

After transmigrating, with the boost from her pheromones, her strength and prowess surpassed many professional killers.

Red Fox drew a triangular military dagger from his boot, slashing at her wrist.

His right hand had suffered nerve damage in the previous operation, leaving him unable to accurately pull a trigger.

This was the main reason he wasn’t using firearms.

The human body’s potential is limitless, but most people in the world can only tap into a small portion of that potential.

Awakened ones, however, were exceptions. They were like heaven’s favored children, bestowed with special gifts.

Shen Han could control fire, while Red Fox could sense the trajectories of some metals cutting through the air.

Of course, the Awakened ones’ abilities also underwent growth and transformation processes. Possession didn’t equal invincibility.

Not long into her exchange with the opponent, Shen Han noticed the baseball cap’s unusual nature.

His reactions were extremely agile, as if he could see through all her moves and dodge in advance.

‘Is it because of that tactical lens? But according to the latest military technology intelligence, tactical glasses haven’t been developed to this level.’

‘They can predict bullet trajectories based on performance analysis of known firearms, but human reactions are infinitely variable. Even if the system could somehow calculate in real-time, there are barriers between translating that into instructions, transmitting them to the executor, and the executor’s final response.’

‘Ah, no time to think about all that. I’ll try to knock off his glasses first, then we’ll know if the problem lies there!’

The theater’s wooden stage, long neglected, was only solid around the edges.

The central area had rotted, with broken boards everywhere, their edges covered in moss and mold unique to the mountains.

Through the gaps between the broken sections, grass and rocks beneath the stage were visible.

As they fought, the two quickly moved to the area with the densest broken boards.

To dodge the military dagger sweeping towards her, Shen Han instinctively stepped back, unfortunately stepping on a rotten board. Her foot sank, suddenly throwing her off balance.

Red Fox naturally wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity.

He suddenly exerted force, like a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey, gripping the dagger tightly to stab at his opponent’s heart.

Not far away, Gu Yuwei watched this scene, nearly scared out of her wits.

She still had a handgun tucked in her belt under her clothes, but hadn’t had a chance to use it earlier.

Moreover, even if she used it, she might not hit the enemy.

But now was no time for hesitation!

Just as Gu Yuwei prepared to fire a sneak shot, the fight scene suddenly took a turn.

Shen Han, who had seemingly lost balance and fallen, suddenly braced one hand against a broken board behind her. Using it as leverage, she spun into an upward kick, directly sending the baseball cap flying three or four meters.

The crackling sound of electromagnetic discharge and the thud of a body hitting the ground came simultaneously.

The cap flew off the man’s head, revealing a face half covered in burn scars and half in fresh blood beneath.

The tactical lens straddling his nose had been shattered by Shen Han’s kick, blood covering his eyes and the side of his ear.

Coupled with the wild hair on his head resembling withered grass, he looked like an evil spirit just crawled out of a grave.

Most terrifying of all, the man seemed utterly unconcerned with his injuries.

After getting up from the ground, without even glancing at Shen Han, he charged straight towards Gu Yuwei.

Gu Yuwei hurriedly raised her gun and fired.

However, the man successfully dodged most of the bullets.

Only two grazed his arm and thigh.

But this not only failed to stop his advance, it seemed to fuel his killing intent to even more frenzied levels.

Shen Han, having just regained her balance, felt her spine suddenly tense. Like a cheetah, she too sprinted towards Gu Yuwei’s position!