Leaving the Underground City

Blasting off the stone shell felt like being reborn. Her clothes were still properly on her body, and nothing delightfully scandalous had happened.

Daisy did not care whether the filthy air would give her pneumoconiosis. She felt herself over from head to toe. All her features were intact, and she was not missing any hands or feet. The Inhuman defect she had been faintly worried about had not appeared on her.

Maybe the defect was just hidden deeper? she comforted herself.

She felt relaxed and content, as though she had shed a burden weighing dozens of pounds. Clenching her fist, she tested her current strength. Compared with her previous female body, and even with her male body from her past life, she was much stronger.

Her figure remained slender, no different from before. But a fresh vitality rose from her cells, greatly improving her speed, reflexes, and endurance.

Her methods of exerting force and her techniques were still immature, but her physical fitness was already no worse than that of warriors who had undergone harsh training. The entire process had taken only ten minutes.

The Terrigen Crystal mist had transformed her completely. From her cells to her internal organs, blood, lymph, and bones, her entire body had been reborn.

The physical enhancement was only a bonus. Her powers were what mattered. Daisy focused on sensing her ability. This bloodline activation ritual was much as she had expected. The stone door had not opened automatically. There might have been a switch somewhere outside, but she was alone now and could only open a passage from within.

Reality was not a game. Gaining powers would not automatically give her an icon to press or a button to activate them.

Powers provided a possibility. How far one could take them depended on oneself.

In theory, ordinary people could participate in every Olympic event, but how many could actually do it? Without training, very few could accomplish any of them.

Powers also needed to be studied, developed, and trained until they became a unique skill.

Daisy carefully sensed the abnormality within her body. That was her Vibration powers. It was not a form of energy, nor did it reside in any upper, middle, or lower dantian. Just as a normal body could run, jump, and walk, she now had another mode—she could make objects vibrate.

Following the markers, she found the direction from which she had entered and reached out to touch the enormous stone before her.

She did not know whether she could vibrate apart a stone door half a meter thick. If she used too little force, she would not get out. If she used too much, Daisy feared she might shake down the entire Underground City.

"Bzzz." Her first attempt failed. The stone door did not move at all; her vibration was withdrawn by her own body before it even entered the door.

She had not consciously recalled her power. Some subconscious instinct was at work.

Try again! She reached out and activated her power once more.

Daisy struggled to recall the little physics knowledge she had. She remembered that every object had its own vibrational frequency. As long as she found that frequency, she could destroy the stone door.

Search, search... At last, she found the door's frequency and adjusted herself to achieve resonance.

After only two vibrations, her entire body began aching. This ability was rather double-edged—it hurt both enemy and user. But the determination in her personality won out. She suppressed the discomfort and worked hard to adjust the frequency.

Cracking sounds rang out. She hurriedly stopped.

The vibration area was too large. An entire stone door had been encompassed by the effect. Daisy could not be sure whether the door falling would trigger a chain reaction. If the other five stone doors were affected and the temple collapsed, she could prepare for another transmigration.

She stared at the cracks on the stone door for a while, found the most badly damaged spot, and began vibrating it for a third time.

This time, she confined the vibration to a very small area. Though it required finer control, the backlash placed less strain on her body.

Hold on. Slower. Make the range smaller. Lighter. She kept encouraging herself.

With a muffled boom, one-third of the stone door shattered. Daisy did not care how much harm the dust might do to her body and rushed out at once.

After checking the markers on the ground, she quickly ran back the way she had come.

Without the obelisk to provide light, the return journey was naturally pitch-black. However, all five of her senses had been enhanced. She could vaguely make out parts of the path in the darkness, while her improved hearing and sense of direction allowed her to maintain a straight line as she ran.

Women generally had a weaker sense of direction, but that weakness had now been remedied. Although she was nowhere near as perceptive as Daredevil, it was more than enough in this passage three meters wide and two meters high.

Her steps were light and her stride powerful, as though her entire body was filled with strength. Even without professional running training, Daisy believed her current speed was no worse than that of professional athletes.

And she had greater endurance and explosive power than athletes.

To reduce her load and improve her speed, she threw away all the useless supplies.

Daisy feared that at any moment she would hear the Underground City collapsing, seawater rushing in, or some self-destruct mechanism activating... She was not trying to scare herself. Scenes like this appeared too often in movies. She did not dare stop for even a step. Relying on her abundant stamina and tenacious will, she ran for a full day along a route that had previously taken her three days to traverse, finally returning to the watchtower by the same path.

So movies really are all lies... she grumbled inwardly as she sat on the ground, panting heavily.

The watchtower was still filthy beyond description. She did not linger. After tidying her backpack and changing into summer clothes so she would not look quite so unusual, she slowly walked out.

Back at the hotel, she first took a satisfying hot shower. Wearing a bathrobe and pinning up her hair, Daisy looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Her bright eyes held a trace of stubbornness, her nose bridge was high, and her skin had become a little more delicate. European and American skin was generally not very good, but now her bloodline seemed to be pushing her a step closer toward the East Asian type.

Her legs had grown a little longer as well... Daisy had previously been 1.70 meters tall. Now she was around 1.72 or 1.73 meters.

Returning to the bedroom, she took out her laptop and searched for local information. She found no negative news related to herself. There was only an internal notice from the San Juan Police Department saying they were helping her search for her missing parents.

Daisy lay on the bed and began considering her future path.

She immediately ruled out hacking as a profession. The original Daisy had not achieved much in that field, and the golden age of hackers had already passed. Trying to be a lone cyber vigilante was simply courting death. Besides, a hacker needed more than technical skill; they also needed the right mindset. She was not her predecessor and lacked that way of thinking. Imitating someone else would definitely end badly.

Her Vibration powers were her true foundation.

On the way back, she had studied them while running. By applying her vibrations to the soles of her feet, she could run in a hopping, bouncing manner. It looked rather ridiculous, but it really did increase her speed considerably.

Moreover, as she continued running and went from clumsy to proficient, her fine control over her powers gradually grew stronger.