Dom's Risk, A New Residence
What Arthur didn't know was that while he was thoroughly enjoying his carefree, uninhibited nightlife in the cheap roadside motel dozens of kilometers away, the atmosphere at Dominic Toretto's residence was suffocatingly tense.
Mia had just hung up the phone, her hand trembling slightly as she placed the receiver back on the kitchen counter. She looked up, her amber eyes darting nervously between Dom and Letty, who were standing right beside her like twin statues of stone.
Earlier this morning, Vince's hot-headed friend, Slant, had gone to the private hospital to visit Vince in his secure ward.
Slant had found the hulking brute lying in a hospital bed, completely wrapped in heavy white bandages and plaster casts. Vince had been beaten quite badly by Arthur, suffering severe bone fractures that would require at least two or three grueling months of physical recuperation just to return to his original state.
Slant, who was incredibly close to Vince and shared his violent temper, was instantly enraged by the pathetic sight of his friend.
Keeping his impulsive plan entirely hidden from Dom, Slant had aggressively called two other loyal brothers from the crew to go to the apartment complex and teach the young mechanic a brutal lesson together.
As it turned out, all three of the armed, seasoned brawlers were effortlessly and violently dealt with by Arthur.
Not only did they all end up crawling on the floor with an arm and a leg completely broken, but even Old Parker, the veteran partner who ran the neighborhood repair shop with Dom, was heavily dragged into the bloody matter to clean up the mess.
Although Dom, after learning the full, terrifying extent of the situation directly from Old Parker's panicked phone call and strictly for his beloved sister Mia's sake, didn't plan on actively looking for violent trouble with that young mechanic anymore.
However, deep in his proud heart, Dom was still fiercely, intensely displeased with the kid who had so smoothly seduced his sister and crippled his men.
Therefore, Dom had sternly planned to ground Mia to the house for another long period of time.
He figured it would absolutely be for the best to restrict her movements, letting her completely forget that dangerous mechanic as soon as possible.
Who in the house would have ever thought that it would only take until the evening when that exact same mechanic's incoming call would already reach Mia's side, bypassing all of Dom's protective walls.
Originally, Dom, Letty, and Mia were quietly having a tense, heavy dinner at the family table, the clinking of silverware the only sound in the room.
From the sudden, bright look on Mia's beautiful face and her desperate eagerness when she saw the glowing caller ID on the phone, Dom instantly realized exactly who was calling.
Initially, a wave of furious, overbearing anger had washed over the massive street racer.
He had even sternly, uncompromisingly ordered that Mia absolutely must use the loud speakerphone to talk to him.
Dom had crossed his massive arms, wanting to hear exactly how this outsider used manipulative, sweet words to deceive his innocent sister.
Then, he would calmly determine whether or not to step out into the night and teach the kid a final, lethal lesson himself.
Unexpectedly, instead of sweet romantic whispers, Dom heard a piece of absolutely shocking, blood-chilling news echoing from the other end of the phone.
They were being actively watched and investigated by the FBI.
After Mia finally hung up the phone, the silence in the kitchen was deafening. She looked up at her towering older brother, her eyes pleading.
"Dom..." she started, her voice shaking with genuine concern.
But before she could even finish the single syllable, Dom shot her a terrifyingly stern, dark look, immediately interrupting whatever desperate plea Mia was about to say next.
"Mia, go upstairs and get some rest first," Dom commanded, his deep voice leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.
Mia's face flushed with a bit of unhappy, rebellious frustration. Dom had always aggressively protected her, his younger sister, very well over the chaotic years.
He had also never allowed her to come into direct, dangerous contact with the illegal, high-speed things he was doing in the shadows.
"Dom, I'm not a child anymore," Mia argued stubbornly, standing her ground by the counter.
Dom didn't say a single word more; he just looked at her calmly, maintaining a very stern, immovable gaze that carried the weight of a hardened patriarch.
After the siblings locked eyes for a long, tense moment, Mia realized she couldn't win this battle of wills. She gave a light, defeated huff, turned on her heel, and quickly left the kitchen, her footsteps echoing up the wooden stairs.
Once she was far enough away and her bedroom door clicked shut, Letty stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Dom's broad waist and giving him a gentle, grounding hug.
Only then did she tilt her head up and ask in a hushed, low voice, "Dom, how much actual credibility do you think that kid's words have?"
Dom was completely silent for a long moment, staring blankly at the wall before slowly answering his fierce girlfriend.
"Haven't you already investigated and confirmed that Old Parker didn't lie to us? His background information is all completely clean and true," Dom reasoned, his voice a low rumble in the quiet room.
"Although that kid's lethal combat skills are such that even a heavy hitter like Vince was absolutely no match for him—which is highly suspicious in itself..."
"...he shouldn't have any actual, hidden connection with the Los Angeles police, the highway patrol, or the FBI."
Letty was the absolute core of Dom's racing team, the fiercest driver besides Dom himself, so she naturally knew that their high-speed actions over the past few years were undoubtedly, heavily criminal.
California was the most economically developed, wealthiest state in the US, and Los Angeles was the largest, most lucrative seaport and logistics hub in the country.
Moreover, Silicon Valley, the absolute synonym for cutting-edge high technology and expensive hardware, was also located right here in California.
Over the past few chaotic years, the vast majority of the heavy transport trucks Dom and his crew violently hijacked on the asphalt carried highly valuable, high-end electronic products.
Over those several years, it was conservatively, easily estimated that Dom and his precision-driving crew had hijacked raw products worth at least tens of millions of dollars.
It wasn't surprising to Dom or Letty in the slightest that such massive, unchecked economic damage would eventually trigger a massive FBI investigation.
Therefore, regarding Arthur's sudden warning, Dom was initially in a state of absolute shock and disbelief yet, deep down in his gut, he also felt that the mechanic's words carried extremely high, terrifying credibility.
Pressing her ear against his chest, Letty could clearly feel her tough boyfriend's rapid, hammering heartbeat at this exact moment.
She knew perfectly well that as the undisputed head and absolute core of the underground racing team, learning that he was currently being watched by the relentless federal authorities meant he was undoubtedly the most panicked, stressed person in the entire house.
But Dom also had to rely on his years of street survival, forcing himself to calm down, suppress the panic, and make a strategic choice as quickly as humanly possible.
Letty had never been just a soft, gentle girlfriend standing on the sidelines.
She and Dom were fiercely loyal childhood sweethearts who grew up surviving together on these exact same unforgiving streets; they knew each other far too well.
She immediately stepped back, her dark eyes flashing with tactical advice. "It looks exactly like we need to lay low for a while. The garage is hot. We still haven't cleared even half of the stolen goods from our last highway heist."
"Originally, I planned to move another massive batch the day after tomorrow to our fence."
"Now, it seems we'll just have to keep them securely in our hands for the time being."
Dom's thick brow furrowed deeply, the heavy weight of leadership pressing down on his shoulders, but his stubborn pride flared. He still said, "The transaction scheduled for the day after tomorrow continues exactly as planned. The lucrative price has already been negotiated, and I won't back down now."
"We'll just have to be a little more careful on the road then!"
Letty knew instantly that he was taking a massive, potentially suicidal risk just to maintain his authority.
She opened her mouth, desperately wanting to argue against the reckless move, but ultimately, she clamped her jaw shut and nodded in absolute agreement.
"I understand. Leave the logistics to me," Letty affirmed, her loyalty absolute.
Clearly, rather than fully believing Arthur's uncertain, terrifying intel ,Letty obviously trusted Dom's judgment far more than anything else.
The dark night passed in an absolute flash!
The very next morning!
Lighting a cheap cigarette for himself, Arthur lazily pulled out his brand-new phone, resting against the cheap pillows of the motel bed.
Last night had been an absolute, uninhibited night of wild debauchery!
In his exhausting previous life, he had always heard that the American charity and service industry was incredibly well-developed and heavily populated.
But it had been over a full month since he miraculously transmigrated into this cinematic reality, and entirely due to having absolutely no disposable money in his pockets, he hadn't performed any of those late-night 'acts of kindness'.
Yesterday evening, flush with thick stacks of cash for the very first time, Arthur had taken the motel owner up on his sleazy offer and generously helped two poor, stunningly beautiful young working girls with their immediate re-employment all at once.
Out of a momentary surge of raw, unchecked adrenaline and kindness, he had critically picked the two gorgeous women he found absolutely most pleasing to the eye from the lineup.
He heavily subsidized these two young girls, who were supposedly so incredibly poor they couldn't even afford a full, proper set of clothes, entertaining them in his room until extremely late into the sweaty night.
The two working girls were quite genuinely grateful for the massive payday and were incredibly, wildly enthusiastic in their professional services.
Throughout the long, exhausting night, the three of them communicated deeply, letting go of all their inhibitions and speaking freely between rounds of intense passion.
From America's current, struggling underground economy and the bleak employment prospects on the streets, to the harsh, unforgiving living environment of the struggling immigrants in the sprawling city, and so on...
...the three of them actually took breaks to conduct a relatively in-depth, surprisingly intellectual exploration of the city's dark underbelly.
In the bitter end, as the morning sun began to rise, all three participants expressed absolute, overwhelming physical and emotional satisfaction.
They genuinely felt as if they should have met each other much, much sooner, and the two girls even happily left their personal contact information with the generous, handsome mechanic before leaving.
After a completely exhausting, busy night, Arthur happily discovered that with the enthusiastic, highly skilled help of the two grateful girls ,his [Reproduction] skill had successfully gained massive experience points and leveled up once again.
For a man actively trying to boost his physical attributes through a proficiency system, this was a very, very good thing indeed.
He lingered comfortably in the cheap motel bed, enjoying the lingering scent of cheap perfume, until the grumpy owner finally called the room line to aggressively ask if he needed a paid extension.
Only then did Arthur finally throw on his clothes, check out at the front desk, and leave the motel behind.
He planned to continue staying right here in the sprawling chaos of Los Angeles for a while longer to see the upcoming heist plots through.
After that massive score was settled, he would seriously consider riding across the country to go to New York to take a look at the East Coast.
After all, the iconic Big Apple was undeniably the most prosperous, heavily populated, and bustling city in all of America.
If this dangerous world was truly exactly as Arthur had previously, correctly speculated...
...an explosive fusion of parallel worlds formed by countless Hollywood blockbuster movies, then the concrete jungle of New York should logically be even more bustling and filled with limitless, high-stakes opportunities.
Because of the violent, bloody conflict with Vince and the others, he absolutely could no longer safely live in his old, decaying apartment complex.
That sunny day, Arthur rode endlessly around the winding streets of Los Angeles on his roaring vintage bike, actively scouting for a secure location.
After his [Driving] experience points successfully increased by another three hundred points from navigating the chaotic city traffic ,he finally selected a sturdy, multi-story apartment building.
It was also somewhat aged and weathered, situated safely near a historic downtown immigrant district, and he firmly planned to stay here temporarily while plotting his next massive move.