Tailing Stella
Early the next morning, Arthur followed the precise commercial address Dom had given him and went looking for the place.
The specific destination shown by the address was located directly in the absolute most prosperous, high-end street district of Los Angeles.
It was less than three kilometers away from the sprawling, luxurious South Coast Plaza.
Arthur rode his heavily modified street motorcycle all the way across the city, his hands steady on the grips as he constantly and flawlessly wove through the crowded, morning commuter streets.
This was surprisingly the very first time since his miraculous transmigration into this dangerous cinematic reality that he had actively headed into the most prosperous, wealthy district of Los Angeles.
Previously, Arthur had been far too incredibly busy relentlessly leveling up his physical and mental skills to play tourist.
Therefore, besides his occasional, grueling runs by the public beach, he mostly stayed hidden in the shadows or at a few gritty, local training clubs.
The truly prosperous, glittering areas of Los Angeles, as well as the legendary Hollywood in the northwestern suburbs with its blinding, glamorous stars.
Arthur genuinely hadn't even visited them yet!
However, looking at the towering glass skyscrapers reflecting the morning sun, he absolutely didn't regret his disciplined choices one bit.
After all, bizarre, supernatural experiences exactly like his own, completely combined with that incredible proficiency system golden finger.
Were absolutely not things just any ordinary person could ever hope to have!
Arthur deeply, fundamentally understood the gritty street principle of enduring hard work before reaping the ultimate reward.
If he disciplined himself and worked a little harder right now, once all the system skill levels he possessed were rapidly raised to their maximum potential.
As an absolute, unstoppable all-around superhuman, wouldn't he logically be able to play and dominate this city however he wanted?
After twisting and turning through the bustling, wealthy streets for a good while.
Arthur finally found his target destination: a classic, three-story street-facing brick building sitting right in the middle of the busy downtown commercial area.
Bridger Locksmith Company!
Arthur parked his rumbling motorcycle by the curb and looked up at the neat, professional signage; surrounded entirely by high-end, luxury brand-name stores nearby, this specific locksmith company didn't look particularly eye-catching or flashy at all.
But simply being able to securely hold one's own private storefront in such a massively prosperous, highly expensive downtown area of Los Angeles.
It was absolutely clear to his calculating mind that this Bridger Locksmith Company should be an incredibly, highly profitable corporate enterprise.
Arthur smoothly tore open a foil wrapper, popped a piece of mint gum into his mouth, and began chewing slowly to calm his racing thoughts.
He casually leaned his muscular frame against his heavy motorcycle parked securely by the roadside, his sharp eyes monitoring the front glass doors carefully.
Bridger Locksmith Company was, completely unsurprisingly, the beautiful Stella Bridger's legitimate security company.
That stunning blonde beauty was the only beloved daughter of the legendary master locksmith John Bridger.
And John Bridger was an old, highly trusted friend and mentor of the master gold thief Charlie Croker.
It was widely said in the underground that John Bridger possessed an absolute, astounding supernatural talent for [Lockpicking].
From highly complex ancient mechanical locks to various modern, electronic locks born long after the industrial revolution.
John Bridger was highly proficient in completely bypassing all of them, even effortlessly cracking various precise, massive, and incredibly complex custom bank vault locks.
Before his keen, trained hearing and decades of sensitive, hands-on experience, the toughest security mechanisms in the world couldn't last more than a few tense minutes.
Before being completely, flawlessly cracked by John Bridger's steady hands!
A year and a half ago, together with his protégé Charlie Croker.
He willingly participated in a world-shaking, legendary gold heist at a heavily fortified, secret Mafia stronghold situated in the winding waterways of Venice, Italy.
Using their meticulous, flawless planning and high-tech methods, they successfully managed to steal an entire ton of pure gold bars from that ruthless Mafia family.
If it absolutely hadn't been for the cowardly traitor Steve suddenly appearing with armed mercenaries in their team at the bitter end.
That massive, historic operation should have been absolutely, flawlessly perfect.
Stella Bridger was John Bridger's daughter, and not only was she an incredibly stunning, breathtaking blonde beauty.
But she had also flawlessly inherited her murdered father John Bridger's supernatural [Lockpicking] genetic talent and highly sensitive technique.
At a surprisingly young age, she already commanded and ran her own highly successful, elite locksmith company.
However, entirely because her father had tragically been in and out of federal prison many times for grand theft in the past, he had painfully missed the vast majority of her early life.
Although the beautiful Stella loved her father dearly and had flawlessly inherited his raw talent and [Lockpicking] skills.
Stella had stubbornly taken a rigid, highly legal path completely different from her father John's criminal life.
She absolutely didn't use her brilliant [Lockpicking] skills to hang around in the dark shadows with wanted master thieves like Charlie Croker.
Instead, she brilliantly opened a legitimate security company to actively help the local police, federal banks, and the like securely deal with highly complex safes and massive vaults that even they found incredibly difficult to forcefully open.
As for her father's old, charismatic friend, Charlie Croker, Stella likely still harbored an immense, burning amount of deep resentment.
Because right after her father John was finally released from federal prison, he had already been firmly, lovingly persuaded by Stella absolutely not to participate in violent crime ever again.
But entirely due to his old friend Charlie Croker's desperate invitation, John foolishly decided to take one absolute last, highly dangerous job before permanently retiring to simply earn some easy retirement money.
In the bitter, bloody end, this single, fateful decision cost the older man his life in the freezing snow.
It was naturally, completely impossible for the grieving Stella not to fiercely hate Charlie for dragging him back in.
So, in the cinematic plot of The Italian Job, when the desperate Charlie finally came knocking on her door after more than a grueling year of searching.
Stella finally, reluctantly agreed to actively help Charlie steal the massive mountain of gold that the traitor Steve had locked away in a fortified safe as her ultimate revenge against Steve.
Arthur genuinely wasn't entirely sure if it was simply because Stella was inherently kind-hearted.
Or if she was heavily influenced by the strict moral fact that Charlie and the others absolutely never killed anyone while pulling off their high-stakes stealing in the past.
She actually had absolutely no dark intention of violently killing Steve to avenge her murdered father.
Instead, she incredibly only thought about flawlessly stealing back the heavy gold Steve had violently snatched, completely considering that financial ruin as fully avenging her father.
However, people had many entirely different moral compasses and logical values due to their unique backgrounds.
Therefore, although Arthur's ruthless, survival-driven mind didn't quite logically understand Stella's merciful, bloodless logic.
It absolutely didn't affect his burning, intense desire to seamlessly learn far more advanced and highly comprehensive [Lockpicking] techniques directly from Stella's talented hands.
Of course, if there was ever a perfect, organic chance to intimately test her personal depth.
Arthur absolutely wouldn't refuse the beautiful woman in the slightest!
Lately, entirely because of his wildly passionate neighbor, he had been enjoying the local women quite often.
And he honestly couldn't help but deeply develop a highly refined, addictive taste for it!
After waiting patiently and silently by his parked motorcycle for well over two long, agonizing hours, Arthur's sharp eyes finally saw someone walk out of the glass doors of the locksmith company.
It was undeniably the stunning Stella Bridger.
As soon as she confidently walked out of the high-end company lobby, she quickly got into a sleek, small car parked securely in a designated street-side space nearby.
Arthur's highly trained, automotive eyes recognized the vehicle at a single, sweeping glance; it was a pristine, bright red BMW Mini Cooper.
The United States is a massive, global automotive manufacturing power, and undeniably also a world economic and military hegemon.
Because of this massive industrial infrastructure, except for a very few highly specialized fields where niche product prices are artificially expensive.
The everyday retail prices of consumer electronics, standard cars, and the vast, overwhelming majority of basic civilian products are consistently among the absolute lowest in the entire world.
Stella's compact BMW Mini Cooper, even the brand-new base model, cost only around fifteen thousand dollars in the US market.
Because the stylish car was incredibly small and agile, it was incredibly convenient for rapidly finding tight parking spaces in the crowded city and smoothly weaving through narrow, old streets.
So, many young female office workers and successful businesswomen were very, very fond of this specific, reliable model.
Even some practical male office workers happily chose it for their daily commuting purely for the absolute sake of its maneuverability and convenience.
It was widely considered one of the absolute better-selling, highly popular BMW models within the US borders.
Having absolutely confirmed with his own two eyes that he hadn't found the wrong person, Arthur's calculating mood also became incredibly, sharply excited.
He absolutely wasn't in any reckless hurry to aggressively step forward and meet Stella right now, because they were complete, total strangers after all.
Moreover, Arthur logically knew he couldn't temporarily offer any massive financial conditions or criminal leverage that would genuinely interest the successful Stella enough to actively entice her into personally teaching him advanced [Lockpicking] related techniques.
Therefore, his immediate, tactical plan was to silently, flawlessly tail Stella through the city for a while first.
In the desperate, highly calculated hopes of eventually, organically finding the traitor Steve's heavily fortified hiding place through her movements.
As for that massive, glittering ton of pure gold bars, although the paranoid Steve might have already quietly sold off a small, untraceable portion on the black market.
The massive, staggering remaining amount still easily made Arthur's racing heart flutter with pure, unadulterated excitement.
So, for the next few grueling, tense days, he stayed completely, doggedly hidden in the deep shadows of Stella's vicinity.
By constantly, meticulously applying theatrical makeup and even completely changing his visible skin tone and posture.
Arthur continuously, relentlessly refreshed his system levels in [Intelligence Gathering], [Disguise], [Reconnaissance], [Acting], and his raw [Driving] skill.
All while incredibly cautiously, flawlessly tailing Stella through the sprawling city traffic!
Hard, relentless work always pays off in the end!
Four exhausting days later, he finally, successfully found Steve's heavily fortified location exactly as he wished!