Last night's high-stake
At noon, it was that exact same Burger King.
Arthur arrived here a full hour early.
There was simply no helping it!
Last night's high-stakes experience was entirely too thrilling.
In his two lives, it was the absolute first time Arthur had been so incredibly crazy and reckless.
That raw thrill of walking directly on the razor's edge of danger and life and death, the massive adrenaline rush when he was violently discovered by Steve and the heavily armed Security Personnel, and the blinding excitement of racing madly on winding mountain roads and open highways, all felt exactly like indelible, burning images in his mind.
From the exact time Arthur returned home in the early hours until the few quiet hours before he left for Burger King to actively meet Charlie, those intense scenes from last night kept relentlessly replaying in his enhanced mind.
Consequently, Arthur, who had originally, strategically planned to take a deep nap before coming over, didn't feel sleepy at all.
So after merely resting his eyes at home for a short while, he still arrived incredibly early at the fast-food place agreed upon with Charlie.
Since Arthur absolutely hadn't had a proper breakfast yet, he planned to be a bit lazy today and just settle his hunger right here.
While leisurely eating his hot food, he held a thick, car-related magazine in his calloused hand, reading strictly to pass the time and incidentally increase some [Reading] system experience points along the way.
Arthur genuinely wasn't absolutely sure if the massive, violent commotion from last night was already known to Charlie Croker and the others yet.
If they absolutely didn't know, that would naturally be for the absolute best.
Arthur could smoothly take the perfect opportunity to earn some much-needed money from them to actively replenish his dwindling funds.
Over the past few grueling weeks, strictly in order to aggressively upgrade his various physical skills and the cubic size of his private space as quickly as humanly possible, besides spending a massive amount of dedicated time, Arthur had also burned through a staggering amount of cold hard cash.
Right now, he urgently needed to recover some of his massive financial losses.
Although nearly two full months had passed since he suddenly, miraculously transmigrated to this dangerous world, he didn't often dine at cheap fast-food restaurants exactly like Burger King.
Most of the quiet time, Arthur would actively buy fresh, high-quality ingredients and aromatic seasonings in Los Angeles's vibrant Chinatown and meticulously cook for himself at home.
So, occasionally coming to Burger King for a greasy burger or sandwich and a massive gulp of sugary, carbonated soda, he surprisingly found that the artificial taste of this fried junk food was actually quite undeniably good.
The agonizing wait always felt exactly like it was passing incredibly slowly.
At first, Arthur would occasionally pick up his secure cell phone to check the exact time.
But as he got more and more deeply absorbed in the technical magazine, he even started seriously thinking about some highly practical, future issues.
Like, after he successfully found a way to retrieve the heavy gold from the locked safe in a while, should he aggressively buy a few high-end luxury cars or something similar?
Unknowingly, Arthur gradually became completely lost in his calculating thoughts.
To the point where the passage of time seemed to magically speed up significantly.
Knock knock!
When a sharp tapping sound came directly from the table next to him, Arthur, who had already flipped lazily to the absolute last few pages of the magazine, finally looked up reluctantly.
A highly familiar, charismatic face came into clear view.
"Hi, Boss!"
Arthur was currently in an incredibly, undeniably good mood; seeing Charlie arrive, he took the polite initiative to smile warmly and crack a casual joke.
Charlie also nodded to him with a genuinely appreciative smile: "You are here quite early!"
He was absolutely still very satisfied with Arthur's raw modification skills and blinding mechanical efficiency.
Charlie had interacted with many different people in the underworld before; in his absolute earliest heist team, there was a highly skilled tech guy who always spent his extra energy on chasing women and fiercely nitpicking over pointless trifles.
Because of that toxic attitude, many massive rifts had formed between Charlie and his previous team.
So for a long, quiet time after that disastrous fallout, he hadn't seriously considered bringing another completely unknown wildcard into his tight-knit team.
However, carefully considering that in the immediate future they might indeed desperately need to heavily modify some agile vehicles for highly specific, dangerous operations, for a fleeting moment, Charlie looked at the young mechanic sitting right in front of him and suddenly felt a bit tempted.
"I will deeply investigate his street background later."
"If there are absolutely no hidden problems or federal ties, I can seriously consider bringing him fully into our team."
Charlie Croker obviously didn't know yet that he had been miserably, completely screwed over by the exact same young man sitting right in front of him.
In his mastermind heart, he was still actively thinking about actually bringing Arthur directly into the lucrative fold.
Arthur naturally didn't know his true, underlying thoughts at the moment either.
That specific 'Boss' title was absolutely nothing more than a casual, joking street greeting.
"Something went terribly wrong with my old motorcycle last night, and I desperately need a solid sum of money to actively replace my ride."
"So, Boss, as soon as I received your urgent summons, I came over here immediately."
Arthur smiled flawlessly as he answered Charlie; this was a perfect, highly believable line he had meticulously thought of long ago.
He indeed didn't actually have much cold cash on him right now, so if he could completely confirm that Charlie didn't yet know the mountain of gold bricks at Steve's fortified place had already been stolen by him, then Arthur would smoothly use this exact excuse to politely ask him for the payment in full advance.
At the very absolute least, he had to get more than half up front.
Charlie was genuinely stunned, absolutely not expecting Arthur to answer him quite like that.
But he quickly reached out and patted Arthur securely on the broad shoulder.
"Alright, I happen to have two more normal cars right here that I desperately want you to heavily modify."
"Let's go!"
After saying that, he was just about to go pay the check, but the polite waiter gently reminded them that Arthur had already fully paid the bill beforehand.
And so, Charlie confidently led Arthur out of the busy Burger King.
Ten short minutes later, they were standing securely back at the exact same abandoned industrial warehouse as before.
Arthur looked critically at the two cars parked quietly inside the dark warehouse; they were two completely ordinary, unassuming family sedans.
A standard Volkswagen and a reliable Toyota!
He looked expectantly at Charlie, and Charlie immediately went into professional detail: "Both of these cars absolutely need to have their stock engines completely replaced with much more powerful ones, the tires fully replaced with explosion-proof and wear-resistant tactical rubber, and the standard window glass also entirely replaced with heavy privacy glass."
Charlie rattled off about ten highly specific modification requirements in a row; the raw mechanical difficulty absolutely wasn't too high.
At the very least, with Arthur's current, supernaturally enhanced [Repair] skills, it really wasn't difficult in the slightest.
"No problem at all, Boss."
"I will accurately list the required performance parts, and you aggressively procure them."
"As a complete package deal, I will strictly charge you ten thousand US dollars for the entire modification fee!"
"If the heavy parts can absolutely all arrive here before four in the afternoon, I can flawlessly finish the complex modifications before midnight."
Arthur absolutely wasn't surprised exactly why Charlie hadn't aggressively asked him to modify the three agile BMW Minis just yet.
He had meticulously followed Charlie and the others through the sprawling city for a while, so he knew their exact, current operational situation.
They hadn't yet successfully sabotaged the central TV signal at Steve's fortified villa to organically let the stunning Stella disguise herself as a repair person and smoothly infiltrate Steve's estate.
In the original, bitter end, the naturally suspicious and highly paranoid Steve had instead become incredibly suspicious of Stella directly because of that exact encounter.
This disastrous slip led to Charlie and the surviving others being violently exposed, and eventually, they had to drastically change their meticulous plan from quietly infiltrating Steve's villa to completely orchestrating a blatant, high-speed robbery on the city streets.
"It absolutely seems Charlie genuinely doesn't know yet that the massive gold bricks at Steve's place have already been stolen."
"This is incredibly good too; I can easily earn a bit more survival money off him."
Although ten thousand US dollars didn't actually seem like a massive fortune, who on these unforgiving streets would actively complain about having too much cold hard money?
Besides, it could easily be earned in just over ten grueling hours of greasy work, and it would also massively increase the system experience points for his highly useful [Repair] skill.
Arthur was more than enthusiastically willing!
Charlie looked at Arthur with an appreciative smile; he genuinely liked the young mechanic's absolute, unwavering confidence.
But absolutely no one would ever complain about having too much money; the steep price that should legally be haggled still definitely had to be haggled down.
"At a standard neighborhood repair shop, if we actively bring our own expensive parts, the raw modification fee would be a few thousand US dollars at the absolute most."
"You are aggressively asking for entirely too much, Arthur. I can only generously give you six thousand at most!"
Arthur raised a thick, skeptical eyebrow.
"Nine thousand, absolutely firm price."
Charlie still stubbornly shook his head: "Seven thousand. If it absolutely weren't for the undeniable fact that you can miraculously finish the complex installation today, I definitely wouldn't give such a high, premium price."
Arthur suddenly felt that completely screwing this specific guy over once regarding the mountain of gold really wasn't a moral mistake at all.
Fiercely nitpicking over even a few thousand measly US dollars, one should clearly know that Charlie Croker was a world-renowned, elite international thief.
In the past few highly lucrative years, Charlie and his elite team had violently stolen at least a hundred million US dollars in massive, ill-gotten gains from numerous ruthless gangs, unscrupulous businessmen, and violent villains all over the globe.
Even if their loyal team always split it completely equally, this specific guy's personal net worth was easily well over ten million US dollars.
Calling him an absolute, undisputed multi-millionaire definitely wouldn't be an exaggeration in the slightest.
Right then, Arthur also stubbornly shook his head and flatly refused to agree.
"Eight thousand US dollars, and it absolutely cannot go any lower."
"Your highly specific modification requirements have already massively exceeded the normal scope of reasonable, civilian modifications."
"I am absolutely not the type of person to talk entirely too much or ask dangerous questions, and I am strictly earning hard-earned, highly skilled money."
"Any less than that, and you should definitely go find someone else far more capable."
Charlie thought about it intensely for a moment and then finally nodded his head.
"Fine!"
As soon as he finally agreed, Arthur spoke up again immediately: "I want the entire payment completely settled in full right now, Boss. I am really in a desperate hurry for survival money this time."
"Please rest absolutely assured, if you are not entirely satisfied with my flawless modifications, I will be on active call and aggressively modify it for completely free until you are fully satisfied."
Perhaps entirely because of his previous, highly believable excuse regarding his wrecked motorcycle, Charlie didn't doubt his desperate urgency this time.
He just pondered for a brief, calculating moment before finally agreeing.