A Morning Interlude
"Hi, Mia."
Arthur Sterling smiled, his voice still thick with sleep as he casually leaned against the doorframe to greet the stunning mixed-race beauty.
"It's been a while. You're looking as charming as ever."
In the gritty, high-stakes cinematic world of Los Angeles, certain unspoken rules governed human interaction.
Arthur knew perfectly well that if a beautiful woman actively takes the initiative to appear at your doorstep more than once, and has repeatedly shown considerable, unguarded interest, a man shouldn't overthink the situation.
She either wants to kill you, or she wants to be with you.
Given their shared history and the lingering scent of tomato beef stew from her last visit, Arthur didn't think he and Mia Toretto had any deep-seated, violent grudge that would make her want to put a bullet in his head.
Therefore, the logical result was entirely self-evident.
However, as Arthur offered his charming, half-awake smile, he watched Mia's expression rapidly shift in a matter of seconds.
The warm excitement in her amber eyes instantly morphed into wide-eyed surprise, then absolute shock, and finally, a deep, furious crimson shyness that flooded her cheeks and trailed down her neck.
Confused by her sudden, intense reaction, Arthur subconsciously followed her wide-eyed gaze downward, looking past his own chest.
Only then did the harsh, cold reality of the situation finally hit him.
He was a dedicated naked sleeper, and he hadn't bothered to grab a towel.
Because absolutely no one ever visited his crumbling apartment in the early morning, and because Los Angeles was currently experiencing its most beautifully pleasant weather of the year, he had simply rolled out of bed without a single thought.
The mornings here were comfortably cool, while the noon sun blistered the asphalt, so sleeping completely bare had become his preferred way to recover from grueling physical training.
Startled awake by the persistent, heavy knocking just moments ago, his brain hadn't fully processed the social necessity of clothing. He had walked over to the entryway purely on raw, sleepy instinct.
"Uh!"
Arthur blinked, the charming smile freezing on his face. "Sorry, give me a second!"
In that brief, horrifying downward glance, Arthur hadn't just noticed his increasingly defined, sculpted abdominal muscles on full display.
He had also glaringly noticed his own morning anatomy, which was standing incredibly tall and rigidly proud in the crisp morning air.
It simply couldn't be helped; he was an eighteen-year-old young man overflowing with surging vitality.
The neon-lit streets of Los Angeles were packed with working girls on corners who desperately needed financial assistance, but Arthur simply didn't have the disposable income for such fleeting, risky indulgences.
Since he had systematically spent almost all his hard-earned cash on grinding system skill experience and buying car parts, he had tightly resisted any reckless impulses.
While he lacked the physical money to hit the city's red-light districts, his predecessor's dusty apartment contained quite a hefty, hidden collection of adult-only magazines and glossy weeklies.
After returning exhausted from the repair shop late last night, Arthur had intensely read through a few issues to grind his [Reading] skill for a bit before resting his heavy eyes.
Inevitably, his enhanced, highly active brain had conjured up some incredibly vivid, messy dreams during the deep night.
That biological reality was exactly why he was standing at absolute, undeniable attention upon opening the door.
Quickly slamming the heavy wooden door shut, Arthur rushed frantically across the small living room to find some decent clothes to throw on.
He didn't rush to immediately reopen the door for his guest. Instead, he took the brief, necessary opportunity to step into the cramped bathroom, splashing freezing cold water onto his face and dealing with the night's accumulated biological tension.
The entire frantic process of washing up and getting dressed took only a few short minutes.
Once his jeans were zipped and a clean, dark t-shirt was pulled over his broad shoulders, Arthur took three long strides across the floor and quickly pulled the door open again.
When the door swung wide, Mia was still standing obediently out in the dim hallway.
The absolute moment their eyes met again, a fresh, vibrant blush quickly rose on the mixed-race beauty's face, her skin radiating a deep heat.
Her amber eyes even subconsciously, uncontrollably flickered downward toward his waistline before she quickly snapped her gaze back up to his face.
Clearly, the unexpected, fully exposed scene from just a few moments earlier was a bit too visually stimulating for a girl in her late adolescence with surging, repressed hormones.
Arthur, despite the initial embarrassment, was naturally a bit proud of this undeniable physical effect he had on her.
In the blink of an eye, it had been nearly a full month since he had miraculously transmigrated into this dangerous, high-octane cinematic world.
Over the past twenty-odd grueling days, Arthur had done absolutely nothing but work himself to the bone and relentlessly grind his system abilities.
Relying entirely on his golden finger, the cold and calculating proficiency system, he had already successfully triggered over a dozen highly practical skills.
He had even managed, through sheer stubborn willpower, to raise most of them by one to three full levels.
Thanks directly to this obsessive grinding, the total sum of free attribute points Arthur had gained during this period already far exceeded the physical limits of any average person walking the streets.
He only had to look at his current, glowing blue attribute list to see the proof of his ascension.
[Host: Arthur Sterling.][Lifespan: 18/72.][Intelligence: 16.][Strength: 13.][Agility: 13.][Constitution: 13.][Endurance: 13.][Unassigned Attribute Points: 0.] ...[Current Skill List][[Driving] Lv3 (634/2000):Very good, you are now a qualified veteran driver!]
[[Lockpicking] Lv1 (117/200):You can try opening locks without a key now.]
[[Culinary Skill] Lv2 (163/500):Why not try making some more complex and delicious food?]
[[Reading] Lv2 (13/500):Escape stupidity, starting with Reading!]
[[Repair] Lv4 (912/10000):Most things can be fixed by you.]
[[Swimming] Lv1 (16/200):Keep it up, you're already faster than a seahorse.]
[[Running] Lv2 (39/500):Life is movement; never stop exercising.]
[[Shooting] Lv2 (12/500):Feel the charm of American Iaijutsu.]
[[Card Skill] Lv1 (4/200):Want to use this to make money? No, you're still far from it.]
[[Drawing] Lv1 (3/100):Good job, you're already at an elementary student's level.]
[[Information Gathering] Lv1 (73/200):Master it, understand it, then go do it.]
[[Mechanical Engineering] Lv1 (127/200):The charm of machinery is endless.]
[[Mathematics] Lv2 (17/500):The end of the universe is Mathematics.]
[[Disguise] Lv2 (21/500):You can make yourself look a little less like yourself.]
[[Foreign Languages] Lv2 (17/500):Master more languages, at least you won't have to worry.]
Arthur had actively awakened a massive amount of new, highly complex skills during this intense period of isolation.
Among the newest additions, [Mechanical Engineering], [Mathematics], and [Foreign Languages] were all seamlessly awakened while he was heavily modifying those three dangerous black cars for Old Parker in the secluded warehouse.
His foundational [Reading] and [Drawing] skills had also naturally leveled up because of that exact same illicit job.
During the grueling modification process, in order to complete the high-performance work flawlessly, he had been forced to look up and research dense, foreign technical manuals.
He simultaneously had to actively inspect and draw highly detailed, precise diagrams of various engine parts and even the entire vehicle chassis structure to effectively reduce his manual workload.
He genuinely hadn't expected to unexpectedly awaken several brand new, highly academic skills just by stripping and rebuilding heavy steel.
As for the highly unusual [Disguise] skill, it happened completely by accident one early morning when Arthur critically noticed he had massive, dark circles under his eyes from staying up late grinding.
He had specifically found some cheap concealer and applied some light, subtle makeup to his face to hide his exhaustion from Old Parker.
Unexpectedly, he had actually awakened the espionage-tier skill right there in his cracked bathroom mirror.
All of the other foundational skills had also leveled up successively over the past period of intense focus.
Arthur had meticulously and logically distributed the massive total of 16 free attribute points perfectly evenly across his five major physical and mental attributes.
Now, his raw physical fitness in absolutely all areas had greatly and noticeably exceeded the baseline adult average of 10 points.
Arthur also discovered that as his numerical attributes exponentially increased, his biological body showed obvious, undeniable feedback in various, highly practical aspects.
Most notably, his brain was becoming terrifyingly smarter, and his rapid logical thinking and photographic memory far surpassed what they once were just a month ago.
His originally scrawny, underfed frame now had thick, bulging layers of dense muscle wrapping his bones like steel cables.
Even his already impressive morning anatomy had visibly expanded and thickened a bit more due to the massive boost in his overall [Constitution] and blood flow.
So much so that Arthur now had to intentionally delay a bit every single morning just to calm its raging, hormonal anger!
Therefore, standing in the doorway, he wasn't surprised by Mia's intense, lingering blushing at all.
The current, highly evolved Arthur Sterling indeed possessed many striking, rugged highlights that would effortlessly fascinate and completely captivate a girl in her late adolescence.