Blasting away the layer of stone covering her body felt like being reborn.
To her relief, her clothes were still intact.
Nothing embarrassing or cliché had happened.
Daisy paid no attention to whether the foul air might eventually give her pneumoconiosis.
She quickly checked herself over.
Her features were unchanged.
Her limbs were intact.
The Inhuman genetic defect she had quietly worried about hadn’t appeared.
Perhaps the defect was simply well hidden.
That was how she chose to reassure herself.
Her body felt incredibly light, as though dozens of pounds had been lifted from her shoulders.
She clenched her fist, testing her newfound strength.
Not only was she stronger than this body’s previous self, but she had even surpassed the physical strength she had possessed in her former life as a man.
Her figure remained as slender as before.
Yet every cell pulsed with newfound vitality.
Her speed, reflexes, and endurance had all improved dramatically.
Her movements and technique were still unrefined, but purely in terms of physical ability, she was already comparable to a soldier who had undergone rigorous training.
The entire transformation had taken only ten minutes.
The Terrigen Mist had fundamentally transformed her.
From her cells to her organs, blood, lymph, and bones, her entire body had been reborn.
The physical enhancement was merely a side effect.
Her superpower was what truly mattered.
Daisy carefully examined the new ability within her.
The awakening ritual had unfolded almost exactly as she had expected.
One thing, however, had not happened.
The stone doors remained shut.
Perhaps there was a mechanism outside to open them, but since she was alone, she would have to create her own exit.
Reality wasn’t a video game.
You didn’t gain a convenient icon just because you awakened a superpower, nor could you simply press a button to activate it.
A superpower only granted potential.
How far that potential could develop depended entirely on its user.
In theory, any healthy person could attempt every Olympic event.
In practice, very few could compete without years of training.
Superpowers were no different.
They required research, experimentation, and constant practice before they became reliable abilities.
Carefully sensing the changes inside her body, Daisy focused on her vibration ability.
It wasn’t a form of energy stored inside some mystical center.
Instead, it felt as natural as walking, running, or breathing.
Her body had simply gained a new function.
She could make objects vibrate.
Following the arrows she had left earlier, Daisy returned to the massive stone door blocking her way and gently placed a hand against it.
She had no idea whether her power could break through a stone door nearly half a meter thick.
If the vibration was too weak, she would remain trapped.
If it was too strong, she might collapse the entire Underground City.
A low hum echoed.
Her first attempt failed completely.
The stone door didn’t move in the slightest.
Her vibration dissipated before it even penetrated the rock.
It wasn’t a conscious decision.
Some instinctive force within her had automatically withdrawn the ability.
She tried again.
Stretching out her hand, Daisy activated her power once more.
She struggled to remember the little physics she still knew.
Every object possessed a natural resonant frequency.
If she could find the stone door’s frequency…
She could destroy it.
Patiently, she searched.
Eventually, she found it.
Carefully, she adjusted her own vibrations until resonance was achieved.
After only two attempts, soreness spread throughout her entire body.
This ability truly was a double-edged sword.
It damaged both the target and its user.
Still, Daisy’s determination prevailed.
Suppressing the discomfort, she continued refining the frequency.
Crack…
Crack…
Fracturing sounds echoed through the chamber.
She immediately stopped.
The affected area had been too large.
Her vibrations had spread across the entire stone door.
If it collapsed completely, she couldn’t be certain it wouldn’t trigger a chain reaction.
Should the remaining five doors collapse as well, the entire chamber might come crashing down.
She would be lucky if escaping became her only concern.
Carefully examining the cracks, Daisy identified the section that had sustained the greatest damage.
She tried a third time.
This time, she drastically reduced the vibration’s area of effect.
Although doing so required much greater precision, it also reduced the strain on her own body.
Steady…
Slower…
Narrow the range…
Gentler…
She silently encouraged herself.
Thud.
With a dull impact, roughly one-third of the stone door shattered apart.
Ignoring the clouds of dust filling the air, Daisy rushed through the opening without hesitation.
Finding the trail markers she had left behind, she sprinted back the way she had come.
Without the obelisk, the return journey was engulfed in complete darkness.
Fortunately, her enhanced senses compensated for the lack of light.
Even in near-total darkness, she could vaguely distinguish the contours of the tunnel.
Her heightened hearing and improved sense of direction allowed her to maintain a perfectly straight course.
Her once-average sense of direction had improved dramatically.
Although nowhere near the extraordinary perception of Daredevil, it was more than sufficient for navigating a tunnel three meters wide and two meters high.
Her footsteps were light.
Her stride was powerful.
Every movement overflowed with energy.
Even without professional athletic training, Daisy was confident her running speed rivaled that of elite athletes.
More importantly, her endurance and explosive power exceeded theirs.
To lighten her load and maximize her speed, she discarded every unnecessary supply.
She couldn’t shake the fear that the Underground City might collapse at any moment.
Seawater flooding in.
Ancient self-destruct mechanisms activating.
The entire structure caving in.
It wasn’t entirely irrational.
Scenes like that happened all the time in movies.
She never slowed down.
Driven by abundant stamina and sheer determination, she completed in a single day the journey that had originally taken her three.
Following the same route, she finally emerged from the watchtower.
“So much for everything I’ve seen in the movies…” Sitting on the ground, she panted heavily while muttering the complaint to herself.
The abandoned watchtower remained just as filthy as before.
She didn’t linger.
After repacking her backpack, she changed into lighter summer clothes so she wouldn’t stand out and casually walked back toward the city.
Upon returning to the hotel, she immediately took a long, satisfying hot shower.
Wrapped in a bathrobe with her damp hair pinned up, Daisy stood before the bathroom mirror.
Her eyes were brighter than before, carrying a quiet determination.
Her nose remained elegantly defined.
Her complexion had become even smoother and more delicate.
The awakening of her Inhuman bloodline seemed to have subtly refined her appearance.
She also discovered something unexpected.
She had grown another centimeter.
Previously, she had stood exactly 1.70 meters tall.
Now she measured 1.71 meters.
Returning to the bedroom, she opened her laptop and searched local news reports.
There were no reports involving her.
The only relevant information was an internal notice from the San Juan Police Department continuing the search for her supposedly missing biological parents.
Lying back on the bed, Daisy began thinking about her future.
The profession of hacker was the first option she discarded.
Even the Daisy of the original timeline had never achieved remarkable success in that field.
Besides, the golden age of hackers had already passed.
Trying to survive alone as a cybercriminal would be little more than suicide.
Technical skill alone wasn’t enough.
A truly exceptional hacker also needed the right mindset.
She wasn’t the original Daisy.
Blindly copying someone else’s path would only lead to failure.
Her vibration ability would become the foundation of everything she did.
During the return journey, she had continued experimenting while running.
By channeling vibrations through the soles of her feet, she could propel herself forward with remarkable efficiency.
The movement looked somewhat awkward, almost bouncing with each step, but the increase in speed was undeniable.
More importantly, as she repeatedly practiced, her control over her superpower steadily improved, progressing from unfamiliarity toward true mastery.