After breakfast, Daisy chatted with the hotel staff and expressed her concerns about the local public safety. The staff recommended a gun store to her.
She spent $1,100 and left with two Glock 18s and two boxes of ammunition. These guns were easy to carry, one tucked into her lower back and one hidden in her backpack, theoretically enough to handle general trouble.
Over the next few days, she began frequenting local legends, stories, libraries, and online forums, searching for clues about ancient cities.
She went to the San Juan police station for three consecutive days, claiming that she had seen an online post about a couple who had lost a girl there eighteen years ago, and she was following the lead to find her birth parents.
The police department gave her U.S. passport a respectful glance and patiently cooperated with her search for three days.
The search for her parents was just a cover. Daisy needed to put on a show for her legitimate presence in Puerto Rico, and more importantly, to implant a Trojan horse into the police system.
She found the architectural layout of Old San Juan from the police database. Not being an architect, she couldn't spot many anomalies. However, with her memory and some guesswork, she still found a few key points.
Old San Juan was originally named San Cristóbal, a sturdy fortress built by the Spanish to control the Caribbean Sea. Over a long period, it contributed significantly to repelling invasions by the Dutch, English, and Americans.
It could be confirmed that the Inhuman ancient city was deep beneath the old fortress.
Large organizations would have completed half of the information gathering at this point, followed by clearing the area and using large machinery for deep excavation. She recalled SHIELD using high-speed cutting machines, and Hydra was even more impressive, setting up plasma drills. But poor Daisy, let alone a helper, she didn't even have a shovel.
As for going to a store to buy a shovel and digging a tunnel herself, acting as an American version of 'Candle in the Tomb'? That didn't seem reliable at all... The method of hard digging wasn't suitable for her.
Daisy dove into the San Juan library, searching through various documents. It must be said that pressure creates motivation; her Spanish proficiency improved by leaps and bounds while researching. Although she spoke haltingly, she had no major obstacles in reading and writing.
Among the local folklore, she found a piece of information that resembled an urban legend.
The legend spoke of a watchtower on the north side of the old fortress, facing the sea. For a long time, no one dared to guard it. Eleven soldiers were recorded as having gone missing, and local legends claimed an ancient demon resided beneath the tower.
Daisy was a little scared. Were there demons in the Marvel world? She knew there were, but they shouldn't be here.
The documents stated that the soldiers disappeared without a trace, neither seen alive nor found dead. This indicated a direct passage to the underground city, and since the soldiers lacked Inhuman blood, they naturally never returned.
It must be said that this strange tale was good news for her, being alone.
August in Puerto Rico was very hot. San Juan was not a large city, and the streets were narrow. The imagined scenes of gunfights all over the streets were nowhere to be seen. The locals were very peaceful, setting up sun umbrellas and casually selling goods on the roadside, with no one bothering them.
Daisy went shopping, preparing some ropes, a dagger, and several glow sticks. She remembered that the underground city had a special magnetic field that could stop all electronic devices, so many things would be useless. Still, she brought a flashlight, as it might be useful initially and could be treated as a disposable item.
She also bought some compressed food and water. While the TV show finished in forty minutes, it was hard to tell how long it would actually take. After all, it was an underground city, and walking on two feet, it would surely take a long time.
Recalling her painful experience during military training, she bought a large pack of sanitary pads. These could be used as insoles, and also for their intended purpose. In short, they were an essential item... The existing city architectural plans were of little help for the underground city, but Daisy still drew a hand-drawn copy to carry with her, leaving her notebook and phone at the hotel.
Daisy wore a beige shirt over her tank top, with her sleeves rolled up, and jeans below.
She wore sneakers, a mechanical watch on her wrist, and a jacket stuffed into her backpack. This outfit looked very hot.
However, she estimated that the underground city would definitely be cold and dirty, so it was always better to be overprepared.
After eating and drinking her fill, and with all preparations complete, she took the obelisk and, on a sunny afternoon, slipped into the fabled watchtower where demons were said to reside.
She had no anti-reconnaissance skills, so day or night made no difference. If someone were following her during the day, she might even spot them.
She briskly turned onto a small path. The watchtower, long abandoned and neglected, didn't even have a proper gate.
The inside was full of dust and cool. She quickly put on her jacket.
She began her focused search.
It wasn't long before she found a hole covered by weeds. Holding her pistol, she slowly descended the stone steps.
This was a wine cellar. Presumably, the soldiers stationed there, unwilling to be bored, had specially dug an underground hole to drink wine, storing it below.
She tapped the floor tiles and walls in sequence, eventually discovering a deep hole beneath the western wall.
The last guards must have blocked the opening, but it was shoddily built and she opened it with a few pushes.
Having read some tomb-raiding novels, Daisy stood outside for a while, then reached out to feel. A gentle current of air flowed through her fingers, and she could faintly feel a cool breeze.
Her long hair tied into a ponytail, she put the flashlight into a miner's helmet and put it on. She carefully climbed down the passage.
The passage was dug by the watchtower guards back then. Their intentions were not hard to guess; they probably thought there was treasure below.
The passage was very narrow. Daisy crawled for an hour in an extremely unstandard prone position. One word: exhausting!
Wilderness survival was really not friendly to women. She should have bought a sports bra instead of wearing an everyday bra. Crawling for an hour, the experience was truly indescribable.
Fortunately, this passage wasn't too long. After a slope, the space suddenly opened up before her.
A deeper, smoother downward slope appeared before her eyes.
As expected, the flashlight went out.
Dusty and disheveled, Daisy knew she had entered the ancient underground city.
Facing the pitch-black passage, she felt a silent fear, mixed with a hint of joy?
Instead of using a glow stick, she inexplicably reached out and grabbed the obelisk. The originally mirror-smooth surface of the obelisk showed numerous orange-red stripes. Having studied the layout of San Juan for several days, she immediately recognized that the stripes on the obelisk's surface were a map, and the stripes eventually converged to a single point – her destination.
The obelisk was still glowing and radiating heat. It transmitted a signal to Daisy: follow its guidance.
This feeling came out of nowhere, but with the faint illumination from the obelisk, she could see her surroundings clearly.
Just a short distance from her feet lay seven or eight skeletons.
At the end of her vision were more desiccated bones. Judging by the clothes, there were Spanish soldiers, indigenous people, and some small animals.
After identifying the direction, she began to walk deeper into the city, following the obelisk's guidance.