As the weeks passed, they found themselves in the freezing, snow-laden, and shadowy capital of Russia. But with the change of the city, a terrifying and radical shift came over Alia as well. With a deep sense of dread, Viktor noticed that Alia no longer wore her familiar Western outfits; instead, she was now dressed in a meticulously tailored, sharp black three-piece suit. An ice-cold and merciless aura of authority now defined her presence. The strangest part was the sleek, elegant cane she constantly carried in her hand, tapping it lightly against the frozen ground every now and then.
Viktor was now trapped in a sort of invisible cage—Alia kept him right by her side, yet maintained such an invisible, ironclad grip on his freedom that he felt like a puppet locked tightly in her palm, bound by chains that couldn't quite be seen but were felt at every turn. As the ruthless and dreaded Mafia Godmother of the underworld, Alia had transformed into the uncrowned empress of the entire criminal empire.
Standing in the freezing wind at the dark corner of the rooftop, Alia tapped her cane lightly against the ice and called out coldly, "Viktor..."
Startled, Viktor stepped back slightly and muttered in a shaky voice, "What do you actually want, Alia? You're not the same Alia anymore... Who on earth have you become?"
With a mysterious, wicked smile, Alia stepped even closer to him. Her sharp, suit-clad yet demonic presence made Viktor's blood run cold. Grazing the tip of her cane against Viktor's chin, she whispered right into his ear, "Does it really matter what I wanted or who I've become, Viktor? You are right here with me... locked safely in the deep shadows of this underworld, right in the palm of my hand. Tell me, how do you like this new version of me?"It was precisely 1 PM. The surroundings were enveloped in an ice-cold silence, with only the howling wind of the biting Russian winter audible outside. In the stillness of the room, the soft, bluish glow of the laptop screen fell across Viktor's face. Alia—the terrifying mafia godmother and the terror of everyone—was at this very moment fast asleep, resting her head against Viktor's chest just like an innocent child. Her neat three-piece suit and the ruthless, polished elegance of her cane were now gone; in sleep, she looked strangely enchanting and completely pure.
Viktor was staring at the laptop screen with one hand, while his other arm loosely embraced Alia's back. Suddenly, as his eyes caught the display, the blood in his veins seemed to freeze. The laptop screen had completely locked up it was frozen. And right in the middle of that frozen screen, flashing from some unknown hacker or secret system, were strange codes and a 3D cyber projection. Blazing across the display in blood-red font was a chilling message: "THE SHADOW WANTS ITS ASSET BACK. GAME OVER, VICTOR."
Viktor's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. All his nerves instantly tensed. This laptop wasn't an ordinary device; it was directly linked to the encrypted database of the underworld's secret network. Such a flawless and rapid hack could only be pulled off by entities whose reach was far beyond ordinary human imagination. Viktor's hands trembled slightly. Had someone tracked them down in this secret hideout in the dead of night? Or had Alia's enemies followed her all the way to Moscow to eliminate her?
Within a fraction of a second, the temperature in the room seemed to drop even further. Alia's deeply sleeping body resting against Viktor's chest shuddered momentarily—though her eyes remained closed, her subconscious mind seemed to sense the sudden danger. Viktor could not wait another second. Overwhelmed by cold sweat and mounting panic, he pushed the laptop aside and gently yet firmly shook Alia with both hands.
"Alia! Alia, wake up! Wake up quickly!" Viktor's voice came out in a breathless, frantic whisper born of terror and anxiety.
However, Alia did not wake up easily. Letting out a faint, annoyed murmur, she burrowed her face even deeper into Viktor's chest, trying to fall back into her deep sleep.
Panicking further, Viktor shook her harder this time and called out in a desperate, urgent tone, "Alia! Please wake up! The laptop has been hacked! Someone has tracked us!"
The very instant her name was called that second time, every light in the room flickered violently. In a flash, Alia snapped her eyes open. But those sleep-heavy eyes held no trace of fatigue; instead, in the blink of an eye, her gaze transformed into that of a sharp, razor-sharp, and ice-cold predator. In less than a second, she lifted her head from Viktor's chest and sat straight up. Every trace of sleep had instantly vanished from her expression, and her jaw tightened as a dangerous, ruthless determination flashed across her face.Hearing Viktor, Alia sat up straight on the bed in the blink of an eye. There was not a trace of sleep or fatigue in her eyes only the cold, ruthless determination of a fierce predator. In an ice-cold voice, she commanded, "Hand me the laptop."
Without wasting a single second, a trembling Viktor pushed the laptop toward her. Across the screen, that blood-red threat was still glaringly bright: "THE SHADOW WANTS ITS ASSET BACK. GAME OVER, VICTOR."
With a wicked, crooked smile, Alia pulled the laptop into her lap. Then began a blitzkrieg faster than any fighting game. Her long, slender fingers flew across the keyboard with such blinding speed that it looked less like typing and more like she was playing a destructive symphony on a piano. Command windows opened one after another on the screen, lines of green and red code surging up and down like a storm. Unable to withstand the tempest of Alia's digital coding, the hacker system's firewall and defense mechanisms collapsed like a house of cards.
Barely thirty seconds! Not even thirty full seconds had passed before Alia pressed down heavily on the Enter key. Instantly, the menacing threat vanished from the display, and the laptop system returned completely to normal.
But returning to normal wasn't all she did Alia embedded a terrifying and impenetrable security code into the system. She locked it down with a lethal master-lock so advanced that no ordinary hacker on earth, not even the grandfathers of those hackers' ancestors, could ever crack or break it. In fact, if anyone dared to attempt a breach, their core servers and motherboards would crash permanently, and the feedback loop would instantly detonate the hackers' own devices and systems, causing catastrophic damage or destroying them forever. In short, it wasn't just a password; it was an automated death trap for the hackers.
Closing the laptop, Alia looked at Viktor with a chilling, cold smile. The terrifying confidence in her eyes sent a freezing shiver straight down Viktor's spine. In a calm yet metallic whisper, Alia said, "They thought they were trapping us in their web... but they have no idea who the hunter is and who the prey is in this underworld!" Stunned, Viktor kept staring at Alia. Sheer disbelief filled his eyes the same girl who was a ruthless underworld mafia godmother, a devastating cyber-world hacker, and whose cold glare made the entire criminal empire tremble, was right now bursting into a soft, light giggle.
Pushing the laptop aside with one hand, Alia leaned even closer to Viktor. A strangely sweet and playful smile lingered at the corner of her lips, completely contradicting her ice-cold mafia persona. Gently stroking Viktor's cheek with a soft, affectionate voice, she cooed, "Did you really think I only knew how to play with guns and blood? There is nothing in this world that Alia can't do! That's why my father affectionately used to call me his 'talented girl' when I was little."
The moment those words ended, Alia's expression shifted in the blink of an eye. The harsh severity of her terrifying underworld empress persona instantly melted into profound affection. Cupping Viktor's chin, she looked straight into his eyes and whispered with deep infatuation, "I am truly so happy, Viktor, to have a handsome and loving husband like you..."
Yet, right as she finished speaking, Alia's eyes narrowed slightly. Frowning in mock reprimand, she gave Viktor's collar a light tug, and with a firm yet playful warning, she said, "And one more thing... I will absolutely not tolerate you calling me 'you ok daddy