Mia's Excitement, New Discoveries
Arthur Sterling stood in the doorway, the cool evening air of Los Angeles drifting into the stifling heat of his small apartment. It is a universal truth that it isn't just men who covet beautiful and charming women; women also possess a deep, instinctual love for beauty and can easily be moved by the sight of truly outstanding men.
Realizing his current state of undress, Arthur was just about to offer a quick apology and turn around to grab a clean shirt from the bedroom.
However, his sharp eyes quickly noticed the intense, fiery gaze locked onto his torso, along with the rapidly changing, flustered expression painting Mia's usually composed face.
Raising a single eyebrow slightly in mild surprise, Arthur found the sudden shift in her demeanor highly amusing.
Hmm, I haven't even actively tried to provoke this girl's attention yet, he mused silently, a confident smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. But it looks like she's already genuinely interested in me!.
Arthur found the entire situation fascinating, fully aware of the dangerous, adrenaline-fueled world of Fast & Furious she came from, but he didn't let his amusement make him forget his manners or the hospitality he owed his guest.
He stepped aside, pulling the heavy wooden door open wider to formally invite her into the apartment.
"Come in," Arthur offered, his voice smooth and welcoming in the dim light. "I'm just about to prepare dinner, so let's eat together!".
His calm, grounded voice immediately broke the spell, bringing the striking beauty—who had been openly staring at Arthur's sculpted body and caught in a sudden whirlwind of adolescent turmoil—crashing back to her senses.
The absolute moment their eyes finally met, Mia felt the intense heat in her cheeks flare up, making her face flush even more vibrantly under the harsh hallway lights.
Fortunately for her pride, she had grown up completely surrounded by rough, hardened men in the Toretto garage, so she managed to bite her lip and stubbornly endure the inexplicable, overwhelming shyness rapidly rising within her chest.
Mia forced a bright, genuine smile, nodded her head, and accepted his sudden invitation gracefully.
"Okay, thank you!" she replied, her voice steadying as she stepped past him.
This directness was precisely what set her apart; instead of running away in embarrassment like a typical teenager, she was naturally passionate and proactive.
Following closely behind Arthur, Mia stepped over the threshold and entered the small, dimly lit house, the heavy door clicking shut behind them.
"Arthur," Mia began, her amber eyes scanning the neat living area before looking back at him. "I heard you haven't been to the garage for the past few days?".
Arthur walked toward the kitchenette, grabbing a clean, dark t-shirt from a nearby chair and pulling it over his head.
"Yeah," he replied casually, his voice echoing slightly in the cramped space. "I've been feeling a bit dizzy and incredibly nauseous for the last couple of days".
He pointed vaguely to the side of his head, rubbing his temple for effect. "It seems like I actually got a slight concussion when I fell and hit my head against that workbench earlier in the week".
"So," he continued, turning back to face her with a relaxed posture, "I requested five days off from the garage to let my brain stop rattling around".
"But don't worry about me, I've mostly recovered over the last two days," Arthur assured her with an easy, confident smile that reached his eyes. "I'll be perfectly able to go back to the garage and continue working my shift tomorrow!".
Arthur had indeed formally requested five days of leave from Dominic's garage on the very night he had crossed over into this chaotic new cinematic life.
The medical excuse had been far too easy to find and completely undeniable to anyone who had witnessed the brutal altercation!.
Previously, the volatile Vince had violently targeted Arthur out of pure, unadulterated jealousy simply because he saw Mia chatting happily with him near the toolboxes.
As a direct result of that unprovoked aggression, the sudden pushing and violent shoving had caused him to fall backward and hit his head hard against solid steel, making a medically verified concussion the absolutely perfect excuse to take a few quiet days off to recuperate.
As for why Arthur didn't just pack his bags, leave the crew behind entirely, and purely use his system's cheat to make easy money elsewhere in the city... that thought was completely ridiculous!.
He was currently living inside the expansive, parallel world of the Fast & Furious movie series, and the main overarching plot hadn't even officially started yet.
The truly exciting, high-stakes, blood-pumping global adventures of Boss Tang—Dominic Toretto—and his notorious crew hadn't even begun to unfold on the neon-lit streets of Los Angeles.
If Arthur didn't actively get involved in the upcoming chaos to secure a mountain of US dollars, a garage full of high-performance luxury cars, and the company of beautiful women, wouldn't crossing over into this cinematic universe be a total, absolute waste of potential?.
Therefore, he had absolutely no intention of leaving his strategic position at the garage for the time being!.
These critical five days of medical leave were meticulously used for Arthur to quietly explore, grind, and fully familiarize himself with the deep, complex mechanics of his new proficiency system.
Although Mia clearly didn't seem to mind his lack of a shirt—and her amber eyes even secretly peeked at his sculpted body from time to time—Arthur still walked over to his dresser to find a clean set of casual clothes, quickly pulling them on to be polite.
The absolute moment he finished changing his clothes and turned his attention back to the kitchenette to finish cooking, Arthur clearly saw a fleeting, unmistakable hint of genuine disappointment flash across Mia's beautiful face.
It was glaringly clear that his current athletic physique and sharp, rugged looks were quite powerfully attractive to adolescent girls of the exact same age.
A heavy, sizzling dish of spicy chicken skillet didn't take very long to properly prepare over the hot electric burner.
Soon, Arthur walked over to the small, rickety dining table, carefully carrying two steaming, heavily loaded plates of food.
During his time living alone in the city, he had thoroughly learned about the standard eating habits and portion preferences of the locals in the area.
So, he only prepared a modest, small scoop of steamed white rice for Mia, neatly placing it in the corner of her plate right next to the generous, mouth-watering serving of spicy chicken.
By the way, while Arthur comfortably used his own preferred utensils to eat, he thoughtfully prepared a clean spoon and fork specifically for Mia to use.
"Thank you!" Mia said warmly, taking her seat at the cramped table and looking at the impressive spread.
Mia eagerly took the plate of spicy chicken; she hadn't eaten much of this specific, aromatic style of cooking before.
However, whether it was the rustic, modified Tomato Beef stew Arthur had expertly made for her the very last time she visited, or this sizzling spicy chicken skillet right now, they were both robust, savory flavors that absolutely anyone with an appetite found incredibly acceptable and comforting.
For this particular batch of spicy chicken, Arthur had deliberately catered to Mia's personal taste profile by meticulously making the rich glaze perfectly sweet and spicy.
The lingering spiciness wasn't overly heavy or punishing to the palate, deliberately leaning much more toward the caramelized, sweet side of the flavor spectrum.
Sure enough, the very moment after Mia used her spoon to scoop up a tender piece of seared chicken, along with a crisp slice of cucumber and some roasted peanuts, and put it into her mouth, her amber eyes immediately lit up with pure, unadulterated delight.
"Delicious!" Mia exclaimed, her voice muffled slightly as she covered her mouth, a massive, genuine smile breaking across her face. "Arthur, this is really delicious!".
Almost the exact instant her genuine, enthusiastic words of praise were spoken into the quiet room, the cold, emotionless mechanical voice that Arthur had been eagerly wondering about finally rang out clearly in the center of his mind.
"Ding, this specific cooking session took a total of exactly 29 minutes and successfully received a very high evaluation," the system reported in its flat, calculated tone.
"This cooking session earned a massive 52 [Culinary Skill] Experience Points. Please keep up the incredibly good work to continuously improve your [Culinary Skill] skill level," the prompt concluded, the glowing blue text slowly fading from his vision.
It was that familiar, strictly cold mechanical voice again, echoing in his brain, but Arthur was suddenly entirely lost in deep, calculating thought.
Over the grueling grind of the past five days, he had diligently cooked all three of his daily meals entirely for himself every single day without fail.
After all, utilizing the sheer power of the proficiency system meant that every single time he successfully cooked a meal, besides naturally gaining valuable experience points, he would also steadily work his way toward gaining 1 precious free attribute point and 1 more cubic meter of hidden private space upon finally leveling up the ability.
Furthermore, Arthur realized that every single time a specific skill officially leveled up, he found that vast amounts of new, highly advanced techniques and instinctual knowledge regarding that particular skill would suddenly and seamlessly appear directly in his mind, permanently integrating into his muscle memory.
So, after just a few short days of relentless practice at the stove, his current practical cooking skills had actually improved significantly, completely eclipsing the amateur level he had possessed just five days ago.
However, in those past few isolated days, Arthur had keenly noticed a frustrating, limiting pattern; when he simply cooked for himself and ate alone in the silence of his apartment, the base experience points he gained from the system weren't very high at all, typically maxing out at most around a measly dozen points per meal.
But today, the sizzling meal Arthur made in the skillet wasn't actually all that complex or incredibly time-consuming to put together.
Yet, immediately after directly receiving Mia's genuine verbal praise and her obvious liking of the dish's flavor profile, the final experience points gained were actually staggeringly much higher than the combined total of the several intricate dishes he had painstakingly prepared over the entire last two days.
In a brilliant, illuminating instant, Arthur—who had gradually and methodically become deeply accustomed to the hidden rules of the proficiency system—seemed to have finally discovered a massive, highly exploitable shortcut to rapidly level up his [Culinary Skill] abilities.
If cooking for someone else and earning their genuine satisfaction multiplies the system's rewards this drastically, Arthur thought, his mind racing with the strategic possibilities, then I need to start feeding a lot more people in this city.