Unlike Daisy, who was just drifting through life, Black Girl's parents had a plan for her. The main reason they sent her to this godforsaken church school was its good relationship with Yale University.
Many prestigious universities in their early days were connected to the church. Achieving good grades or a strong recommendation from a church school greatly helped in getting into a top university.
Now, all of this seemed to have a few more variables.
"Why are they closing the school?" Daisy had no love for singing hymns, but this was currently her only place to stay. Without any future plans, this place was still very important to her.
Black Girl thought for a moment: "I heard it's some company that wants to buy all the land in Hell's Kitchen and tear down and rebuild the area."
Daisy pulled out her laptop, connected to the internet, and quickly searched. She soon found the answer: "United Construction Company plans to acquire several properties nearby."
She was a little puzzled. Was United Construction Company already laying out its plans in Hell's Kitchen so early?
Behind United Construction Company was Kingpin. At this time, Kingpin was far from the peak of his life. Taking on all of Hell's Kitchen alone was beyond his capabilities, so he partnered with several parties, which gave rise to the shell of United Construction Company.
But Daisy clearly remembered that they were supposed to start acquiring land after the Avengers' battle with the Chitauri, which was still several years away!
Over the next few days, she returned to school. Everyone was in a panic, teachers were no longer serious about teaching, and students were left to their own devices.
The only ones happy were a few school board members. Kingpin didn't want to provoke church schools, which, despite appearing insignificant, actually had extensive connections. The compensation for the demolition was very generous.
Daisy personally saw Kingpin's assistant, James Wesley, a well-dressed man who managed Kingpin's criminal empire, appear at the school. The board members humbly served this benefactor, fearing any slight.
Negotiations between the two parties progressed extremely quickly.
Regardless of her subjective displeasure, the school's closure was a fact. Daisy was faced with two paths: one was to make a living for herself, and the other was to find another school to complete her high school courses and then go to college.
Daisy was confident that with her powers, two lives lived, and foresight from the future, earning money wouldn't be difficult.
However, the choice of faction in the future was a problem.
Joining the underworld was immediately ruled out. As a struggling author, she was essentially a law-abiding good person. She wasn't interested in selling drugs, organs, or weapons.
It's ten times harder for women to establish a vibrant social organization than for men. Without relying on men, any new hothead coming onto the scene would surely challenge her first. Showing off and humiliating people once or twice was fine, but doing it every day would be exhausting.
She also hadn't heard of any woman making a big name for herself in the underworld, so this path wasn't suitable for her.
Running a legitimate business required following many rules, and once it developed to a certain extent, SHIELD and Hydra would definitely take notice.
The former was manageable, but the latter would bring a lot of trouble.
In the movies, Hydra always lurked within SHIELD, making it seem like their strengths were comparable.
However, this was not the case. The Hydra organization was enormous, and its structure could be divided into four parts.
The first was multinational corporations, which used legal activities to mask illegal ones. For example, the Typhon Group, with 250,000 employees, had a board of directors entirely controlled by Hydra. Their business scope covered all aspects, including food, medicine, arms, and aerospace materials.
The second was various government agencies in different countries, such as the Ministry of Finance, the FBI, the NSA, the CSIS, and so on. In some of these departments, a key figure or the direct leader was Hydra.
The third was international criminal organizations, with A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), which Iron Man had dealt with, being a prime example.
The fourth was intelligence agencies, and SHIELD was just one of them.
It was merely a "relatively important asset" within Hydra's vast organization.
Hydra had hundreds of billions of dollars in assets that could be mobilized at any time, and well-trained elite soldiers were stationed in various global sub-bases, totaling at least 100,000.
Facing such a colossal organization, Daisy truly didn't feel she had any ability to resist.
She could only focus on the present, and a painful problem emerged: she was broke again!
It wasn't easy to find another fat sheep like last time. She needed to find some money to spend.
Black Girl tried to persuade her to work at a convenience store, but she rejected it without a second thought. Are you kidding? Her, the dignified Quake, working as a sales clerk? If Stark was willing to clean toilets, then she'd be a sales clerk!
What should she do? She rented a car and drove around Manhattan for a day. Big corporations like Stark Industries, Oscorp, and Rand Enterprises were inaccessible, and she wasn't willing to work in small places.
She passed by the renowned Central Park, planning to go for a stroll, but there were a bunch of police officers with caution tape. She watched from a distance for a while and heard the onlookers discussing what seemed to be a gang shootout, with dozens of bodies being carried out. Since it didn't concern her, she turned back.
She opened the car door, and a man covered in blood was sprawled in the back seat. Her enhanced senses allowed her to hear his extremely faint breathing.
She quickly backed out, preparing to call the police in the distance.
"Huh?" Unintentionally, she perceived him with her vibration frequency and made an unexpected discovery: this was a good person, at least better than most people. Honest, brave, fearless—he seemed to possess all these virtues according to her frequency perception.
Her words to call for help were retracted. There were too few good people in this world, and it was rare to see one, so she would help if she could. Moreover, the Central Park shooting also gave her some guesses.
The other party still had a bit of consciousness. When he saw her approaching, he passed out, seemingly thinking of something.
"Wake up, wake up! What kind of reaction is it to faint just by looking at me!" Daisy closed the car door and somewhat laboriously turned the man over. He was very heavy; even with her currently enhanced strength, it was still a bit strenuous. In common terms, this guy was a big fellow.
The man looked to be in his thirties, wearing a casual shirt and jeans. He had no weapons on him, but three bloody holes in his chest and abdomen looked a bit terrifying.
One of them was slightly above his heart. Although he didn't die on the spot, his life was nearing its end.
Daisy took out his identification from his pants pocket and glanced at it.
"Frank Castle? This guy..." Daisy quickly shut her mouth. It really was him. This guy was the future Punisher.
The Central Park shooting resulted in the tragic death of Frank's once happy and complete family. He later furiously retaliated against gang members and vowed to find the true culprits of the incident