Gold Bricks in Hand, Triggering the Mechanism
On the first floor of Steve's fortified villa, after successfully finding the hidden room where nearly a ton of pure gold bricks were secured in twin safes, Arthur's sharp eyes caught a subtle glint.
He looked up and spotted a sleek surveillance camera pointed directly at the narrow doorway of the small room, his pupils shrinking suddenly.
"Damn it, there is a camera right here," Arthur cursed silently.
"I have to completely finish up and get out of here as quickly as possible!"
Before arriving at the estate, Arthur had already flawlessly applied a theatrical disguise to his facial features.
Although Westerners could hardly distinguish between East Asian ethnicities, much exactly like Asians could hardly tell the fine differences between the British, French, and Germans, Arthur was also wearing a dark, tactical bandit mask.
It would be virtually, entirely impossible for anyone to accurately recognize him by his eyes alone.
However, he was still somewhat wary of the villa's highly paranoid owner.
Over a year ago, Steve had violently betrayed his former partners without a single moment of hesitation.
He had even personally shot and killed one of his older, respected team members in cold blood.
It was undeniably clear that Steve was an absolutely ruthless, calculating character.
Facing such a dangerous individual, Arthur, who was strictly here for the massive mountain of money, naturally wanted to settle things with absolute, surgical speed.
Immediately, he reached out and pressed his calloused hand directly onto the cold steel of one of the massive safes.
The absolute primary reason Arthur had the terrifying confidence to break into Steve's heavily guarded villa entirely alone.
And seamlessly take away nearly a ton of gold bars—a staggering logistical feat that required Charlie's top-tier heist team a series of meticulous, complex plans and explosive actions to pull off.
His greatest, most lethal confidence came entirely from the dimensional private space that came with his proficiency system.
Not to even strictly mention his various, highly leveled skills and the rapid, supernatural increase in his five main physical attributes from recent level-ups.
This time, acting completely alone in the dark.
To effortlessly steal nearly a ton of gold bricks right out from under Steve, his absolute biggest trump card was actually the physics-defying nature of the private space.
Arthur had been rigorously, meticulously researching the exact limits and uses of the private space for a long time.
After nearly two grueling months of intense exploration, he found he could put fresh ingredients and hot food inside the void.
The exact physical and chemical state they were in when put in was exactly how they came out hours or days later.
Even the core temperature wouldn't fundamentally change in the absolute slightest.
It was exactly as if the unforgiving concept of time simply did not exist within the dimensional private space.
In addition to this miraculous preservation, Arthur discovered that no matter exactly how incredibly heavy a physical object was.
As long as its overall physical size didn't exceed the total cubic dimensions of the private space, it could be flawlessly stored regardless of its massive weight.
Furthermore, the crushing weight of any heavy item stored in the private space seemed to completely, entirely vanish.
At the very least, Arthur had tested this massive loophole more than once.
He had seamlessly stored his predecessor's heavy, old motorcycle along with the high-performance Ford Mustang gifted by Dom directly into the private space.
But Arthur absolutely didn't feel any added, crushing weight or physical strain on his person at all.
It was undeniably clear that for items securely stored in the private space.
As long as the sheer size didn't exceed the absolute capacity limit, the massive weight would not affect Arthur's normal, superhuman movement in the slightest.
Besides these incredible logistical conveniences, what delighted him the absolute most and made him fiercely believe he could steal Steve's staggering ton of gold alone.
Was another highly crucial, tactical discovery regarding the private space!
During his previous, intense experiments in the quiet apartment, he firmly confirmed that absolutely anything touched by his bare hands or any exposed part of his physical body.
Could be instantaneously stored directly in the private space, exactly as long as its volume wasn't larger than the space's total available volume.
This was the exact, absolute reason he was supremely confident he could flawlessly steal nearly a ton of gold bricks from Steve entirely by himself.
At that tense moment, Arthur quickly rolled up the dark sleeve of his tactical jacket.
Exposing a patch of bare skin on his muscular forearm, he quickly and firmly pressed it directly against the cold metal of one of the heavy safes.
Previously, for deep, calculating fear of accidentally leaving latent fingerprints on the scene.
Arthur had smartly used clear, synthetic nail polish he had bought while rigorously practicing his disguise skill to thickly coat his palms and fingertips.
He had thoroughly tested the system limits beforehand; he could only successfully store a physical item into the private space when his absolute bare skin made direct, unbroken contact with it.
With the thick, synthetic layer of clear polish blocking his pores, merely touching the safe with his coated palm absolutely wouldn't allow him to trigger the storage ability.
The absolute moment the bare skin of his forearm touched the heavy safe.
Arthur immediately felt the characteristic, freezing coldness of the thick Carbon-Titanium Alloy.
With a single, focused thought, the icy sensation on his arm vanished instantly.
Arthur's vision seemed to blur for a microscopic split second, and a massive, multi-ton safe simply vanished into thin air.
He felt a massive surge of pure, unadulterated joy, but the victorious smile on his handsome face soon froze completely.
The absolute moment that heavy, crushing safe disappeared into the void.
A piercing, deafening alarm violently rang out through the silent room.
"Oh no, a trap!"
Arthur instinctively looked down at the hardwood floor and saw what clearly appeared to be a highly sensitive, mechanical weight-monitoring device.
It rose rapidly from the recessed floorboard exactly where the massive safe had just been sitting securely seconds before.
As the mechanical plate rose, the piercing, relentless alarm loudly echoed throughout the entire luxury villa.
Arthur's racing heart tightened with pure adrenaline.
He absolutely hadn't expected the paranoid Steve to be even more incredibly cautious and technologically prepared than he had initially anticipated.
Logically realizing that the heavily armed owner and any potential, lethal guards might arrive at any second.
Arthur absolutely didn't dare delay for another heartbeat and immediately slapped his bare arm aggressively against the second heavy safe.
After flawlessly storing that massive one into the void as well, another strange, heavy mechanical sound popped out from the floorboards, exactly as if some other interlocking security mechanism had been triggered.
Arthur completely didn't have the luxury of time to worry about it; his enhanced hearing already picked up the violent, hurried sound of heavy footsteps charging aggressively down the main stairs.
"Run!"
Arthur bolted aggressively out of the small room and sprinted directly toward the massive main door on the first floor.
By the exact time his muscular legs powered him over to the entryway, a heavy steel-alloy grille forged from some high-strength metal he couldn't even instantly name was rapidly dropping from the ceiling, nearly sealing completely across the ground-floor passage of the villa.
Glancing wildly at the large, decorative windows, Arthur spotted more thick alloy grilles aggressively sliding down there too, violently locking the entire house down.
At the exact same, terrifying moment, furious barking erupted wildly outside the walls.
That response was blindingly fast!
Arthur's stomach violently lurched; this was his absolute first time pulling off a high-stakes, solo heist exactly like this.
And only mere minutes ago he had flawlessly swiped close to an entire metric ton of pure gold bricks right out from under Steve.
Combat nerves rattled heavily through his veins.
Yet almost instantly, the massive, across-the-board biological boost granted by his superhuman physical stats perfectly steadied his racing mind.
Even in the absolute, chaotic panic of the lockdown, his highly intelligent brain flawlessly mapped a secondary escape route in mere seconds.
"Through the underground garage, sprint back exactly the way I came out that narrow vent window!"
When he had silently slipped in through the dark garage's ventilation window earlier, his sharp eyes had checked the frame thoroughly: absolutely no traps or grilles there.
Plan firmly set, Arthur swallowed the absolute last of his initial fear and sprinted aggressively for the basement stairs.
"Stop right there!"
The absolute instant he ducked violently into the stairwell, a furious, murderous roar cracked sharply behind him.
Deafening gunfire immediately followed.
Crack crack crack crack!
It was an AK-pattern rifle, firing on absolute, relentless full-auto.
Arthur flinched instinctively, dodging the deadly spray he genuinely hadn't expected the supposedly cautious Steve to openly own banned, military-grade hardware.
Sure, America legally lets you buy firearms, but every single one of the hundred-thousand-odd licensed shops only legally sells neutered, semi-auto pieces: standard handguns, sub-guns, shotguns, sporting rifles, and hunting pieces absolutely none of them full-auto.
Heavy 7.62mm bullets whipped lethally past his head, shattering the drywall; pure adrenaline detonated violently in his veins.
With three massive, hopping strides, he dropped completely from the first floor down to the dark basement landing.
He violently slapped a thick strip of duct tape firmly across the door's strike plate and slammed the heavy door shut buying himself a few highly precious, life-saving seconds against pursuit.
Then he bolted straight across the dark garage for the high vent window he had originally used to break in.
A height of two-plus meters up meant absolutely nothing to leg muscles that were now twice the human norm.
With one explosive, powerful jump, his calloused hands clamped perfectly onto the concrete frame.
He hauled his heavy frame upward; his muscular torso slipped flawlessly through the narrow opening.
The absolute moment his tactical boots cleared the concrete sill, urgent, violent footsteps echoed loudly back in the basement.
Arthur had absolutely no time to look back at his pursuer.
He sprinted aggressively for the dark cliff, the villa's deafening uproar and the bloodthirsty howls of the dogs rapidly closing in on his position.
Tonight's lethal thrills, he sharply realized, might absolutely not be over just yet.