Target Shooting

Daisy felt a headache. Whether it was the previous him or the former her, neither liked studying, but in this world, not studying was not an option.

Those who were doing well in this world all had high education. Like Iron Man, the Hulk, Professor X, Mr. Fantastic – they were all either doctors or professors. Even Black Panther was idle enough to earn a Doctor of Physics degree from Oxford University.

Villains were the same. Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, including the just-fled Madame Geo, claimed to know "all" languages. These were all scholarly individuals.

Currently, Daisy's knowledge was limited and her ability development was low. She initially wanted to focus on scientific knowledge, but she found many subjects on the list intriguing, such as disguise, personal combat, electronic device use, and even her own expertise in hacking. It seemed a waste to abandon these unique skills that she couldn't learn from the outside world.

The staff, knowing she was new, handed her several study plans like a package deal, each subdivided into different courses. Daisy quickly glanced through it, realising there were at least fifty courses in total!

In her mind, two little people seemed to be arguing. One suggested she should just learn a few things and rely on her abilities to conquer the world. The other reminded her of the danger that might arise, emphasising how the knowledge she learned now could save her life later.

After careful consideration, she asked Sharon, "Is it stressful to study so many courses simultaneously?"

Sharon seemed surprised by the extent of Daisy's concern. Having been trained from a young age, she was well aware of her future path, which had been optimised under her elders's guidance. Unlike Daisy, who was a newcomer to this field, Sharon was able to take all the courses because of her solid foundation. However, she couldn't easily draw conclusions about others.

Realising her previous words might have been misleading, Sharon thought for a moment before explaining, "It can be quite stressful, and you should evaluate based on your own circumstances. Also, tuition fees can be quite high."

Seeing Daisy without makeup or jewellery, Sharon probably assumed she wasn't well-off financially. This was an attempt to dissuade her using the cost as an excuse.

Living a lavish lifestyle while being economically impoverished, Daisy was one of the hidden poor. However, this time, the tuition was waived, and she found the promise of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director trustworthy. Beautiful women's words might not be reliable, but the Director was certainly more credible.

Without economic pressure, her main concern was whether she could handle studying so many courses.

In the end, she made up her mind and handed over her student card, saying, "I'me enrolling in all of these courses."

On their way back to the room, Sharon seemed a bit embarrassed, as if she had led Daisy into a trap.

"How's your marksmanship and combat skills? If you pass both, you can reduce the general education courses and focus on the specialised ones," the blonde woman suggested.

Daisy was taken aback, realising that they divided courses into general education and specialised ones.

She didn't want to brag and said she could take out three enemies with four bullets, modestly stating that her skills were quite average.

Sharon was skeptical about this. Women tended to be weaker in firearm combat, but Daisy's physique was different from Sharon's sturdy build.

Wanting to make her new neighbour aware of reality, Sharon took Daisy to the underground shooting range.

What? Daisy looked at the cafeteria around the corner. She was hungry, and yet, she was being led to practice shooting in the basement. She was at a loss.

In order to avoid being labeled a loser, she could only follow Sharon, suppressing her hunger, and arrived at the shooting range.

"What type of handgun are you good with?" Sharon asked.

Without recoil to worry about, Daisy could handle any gun, even though it wasn't necessary to reveal her abilities at the moment. She picked a 9mm Glock 17, which was generally suitable for women.

Seeing the gun, she realised she needed a personal firearm. The 92F she had stolen from the gang earlier was rather average in performance.

Large-caliber weapons always brought excitement. Harley Quinn's Chiappa Rhino was very cool, and Daisy thought about customising her own.

While she was choosing a gun, Sharon had already put on safety glasses and earmuffs, found a shooting lane, and started firing at the target, "Bang, bang," hitting the bullseye with ten consecutive shots.

All ten hits.

"Amazing!" Daisy exclaimed sincerely. This was the result of rigorous training.

But she wasn't afraid. Also wearing protective gear, she stood in the shooting lane, feeling like she had traveled back to the beginning of her time here, back when she was practicing shooting in the shooting range.

Without using her abilities, holding the gun with both hands, she fired ten consecutive shots at the target, hitting the bullseye all ten times.

Miss Carter was somewhat surprised. Nowadays, encountering a student with such sharp marksmanship was quite unexpected.

But it was only a small surprise. The marksmanship of agents is generally good. Even logistical personnel focused on experiments can manage to fire a few shots in combat situations.

"Want to try moving target practice?" she asked casually.

Daisy really wanted to suggest going to grab a meal, but she ended up picking up the gun, driven by Sharon's eager expression.

She glanced around briefly. There weren't many people training at the scene, but almost all of them were hitting the bullseye. Unless you intentionally made the bullets curve, it was hard to do anything too extraordinary.

"Sure," Daisy replied calmly.

It was a fairly common pattern. Targets representing criminals and hostages would pop up intermittently. However, unlike a regular shooting range, the targets didn't move at a constant speed. Instead, they moved in an irregular pattern controlled by some kind of computer program. The targets would suddenly speed up or slow down without warning. Sometimes, a target representing a hostage would even run in front of a criminal.

Sharon still demonstrated. She had no idea how many times she had practiced, as she expertly took down ten criminals with ease.

However, for someone like Daisy, who was a bit of a wild card, it was more challenging. Fortunately, her overall abilities exceeded those of an average person, and her reflexes compensated for her lack of experience. The sound of gunfire rang out ten times, and she took down ten criminals.

By now, Sharon Carter, the second-generation agent, finally realised that her neighbour wasn't ordinary. Daisy hadn't mentioned her marksmanship when they introduced themselves. Did this mean that ordinary New Yorkers had this level of marksmanship? If so, there probably weren't many ordinary people left in New York City.

Sharon believed Daisy was lying, or at least, part of what she said was a lie. She believed there was a deeper meaning behind their superiors pairing them together.

In fact, Daisy had thought about this when she first learned Sharon Carter's name. She had guessed the conclusion right away. This was also the main reason why she had accompanied her to the shooting range while hungry.