Preparations

A new company's location was very important.

Hell's Kitchen was impossible for hiring, so despite the steep rent, Daisy gritted her teeth and leased two offices in Midtown as the company headquarters.

At the same time, she posted job listings online and hired several college students to work for her, helping write code.

There were not many barriers to entry in big data. Anyone with an idea could do it.

Daisy's advantage was that she knew the development trends of the coming years. Combined with the computer knowledge of her previous self, she could independently write an algorithm three to five years ahead of the current level.

By the time others recognized the business opportunity and began chopping wood to build rafts, she was already speeding along in a motorboat. That was her advantage.

Daisy worked on it herself for three days and set up the framework, leaving the task of filling in the content to the college students.

The students did not see how important this analysis algorithm was. Their poor performance would have been one thing, but they kept making demands every other day—asking for leave, office entertainment, and a relaxed work environment. Daisy was so angry she wanted to hit someone.

"Huh?" She stormed into her office and opened her computer to clear out her inbox, only to discover a new email.

It was a job application. The applicant was named David Lieberman, a graduate of the State University of New York. According to his introduction, he had extensive experience in the software industry, but no matter how Daisy looked at it, she felt he was bragging. Every achievement he listed used terms like "assisted" and "supported." He was obviously just a lackey.

Still, Daisy decided to give him a chance, because she remembered that David Lieberman was an NSA analyst and Punisher's future friend, code-named "Microchip." Logically, he should not have been unable to find work, so why had he come to apply at her ramshackle outfit?

Could there be some conspiracy aimed at her? She decided to meet this David Lieberman.

The two met at a café.

Daisy was somewhat puzzled by his appearance. "Mr. Lieberman, how old are you?"

"Twenty-six."

He gave an alarmingly shocking answer. Daisy looked at his old face, his full beard, and the wrinkles on his forehead. He had aged far too fast!

She checked his identification and résumé again. They were genuine, and he really was twenty-six. That reassured her considerably. This guy had only just left school, was extremely awkward, and most likely had not joined the NSA yet.

The two chatted casually, and Daisy found that he was much like her current self: his foundations were solid, but his way of thinking was not flexible enough.

Although David Lieberman had never heard of big data, he loved analyzing tangled, complicated data. He believed he could find his own personal value within it.

Among the overwhelming sea of job postings, he had spotted Daisy's listing at a glance. Now that they were talking, he found that many of her ideas directly addressed things he had always thought about but had never fully understood.

This boss might be young and not particularly well educated, but her insight was extraordinary. That was his first impression of Daisy.

Daisy also thought David was good. After all, anyone the NSA would hire was a talent in the computer field—at least, a talent she could afford to hire.

"Mr. Lieberman, in my opinion, you're very capable. Why did you come to a company like mine?" She could not help asking one last question.

The bearded man looked a little troubled. After hemming and hawing for a long time, he finally explained the situation. His wife was pregnant with their second child, and his eldest daughter was still young. A pregnant woman could not be left alone, so his workplace was destined to need to be close to home. Fortunately, Daisy's office was just across the street from his house.

Daisy had nothing to say about this family man who loved his wife.

David Lieberman had a very good temperament—so good that it bordered on cowardice.

In the original timeline, it had been inconvenient for him to show himself, so he asked his good friend Punisher to help out at his home. Who could have expected that, over time, the tall and burly Punisher and his wife would develop feelings for each other? They had even kissed several times in the house. Aside from going all the way, they had done everything else, while David Lieberman sat behind the surveillance monitor and watched it all.

He did not shoot Punisher dead. Instead, he chose to drink himself into a miserable stupor, and eventually forgave them both...

He could be called the greatest ninja in the Marvel world. Daisy welcomed such a mild-tempered employee with both hands. If he could tolerate that, a delayed paycheck probably would not be a problem, right?

The two quickly finalized the contract. David Lieberman would serve as technical director and participate in managing the later-stage development of the big data project.

Daisy explained the development progress, then discussed future plans. David Lieberman immediately got to work.

She had not forgotten her retainer who brought her own provisions. Miss Matsumoto Maki, serving as a spy, was secretly tasked with monitoring the others while also handling legal work for Daisy's company.

Miss Maki was very insecure, so Daisy taught her the karate she had just learned. It had to be said that someone who could become the female Bullseye in the original timeline had excellent physical abilities and learned incredibly quickly. If Daisy had not enhanced her body, she would not even have been able to beat her.

The office space, computer equipment, and servers—every last one of them was rented. The college students had all signed short-term employment contracts. David Lieberman's salary demands were low because he wanted to be able to go home often, while Matsumoto Maki, her retainer, did not even want a salary.

Her company could be said to be frugal to the extreme. Even so, the hundred thousand dollars in her bank account was visibly shrinking, while development was only one-quarter complete.

She saved wherever she could on every daily expense.

She was harsh on the company, but she did not shortchange herself. Daisy bought a used Ford, continued practicing karate and marksmanship whenever she had time, and ate and drank to her heart's content at Chinese restaurants. Life could not have been more pleasant.

When the hundred thousand dollars had dwindled to only a few thousand, a preliminary big data algorithm was finally written.

The algorithm was long and far from refined. Daisy shut herself away to optimize it, then ran it on the rented server.

People of this era were extremely lax about information security. Much user information was practically unguarded, free for her to access at will. The algorithm performed very well.

With development complete, the next step was to talk clients into paying.

Many brilliant ideas and creative concepts were ultimately eliminated by this financial metropolis. Was it because they were not good enough? No. They simply were not good at selling their products.

Daisy was a complete nobody. Going to negotiate with large corporations and expecting to be taken seriously was pure fantasy. David, the tech guy, and Maki, her retainer, were both a little too unpresentable. She needed an assistant.

Returning to her old trade, she hacked a cluster of surveillance cameras, found her target, and monitored them continuously for two days before going to recruit talent with a handgun tucked into the back of her waistband...

This was an upscale residence on the Upper East Side. She had watched the target for two days and discovered that they rarely went out, seemingly living in seclusion. Only then did she come in person to recruit them.

She did not use the front door. She shook open the window latch and slipped inside through the window.

Like so many villains, she sat on a sofa in the shadows and waited for the person to return.