Lockpicking Skill Advanced
Nine grueling days passed in the absolute blink of an eye.
Within the dusty, sun-baked confines of the isolated Bridger family farm, a profound, undeniable psychological shift had occurred. From initial, mild surprise, to wide-eyed astonishment, then to deep, existential doubt, and finally to a heavy, suffocating silence.
The entire, devastating emotional process took Stella Bridger only nine short days to completely cycle through.
Standing in the dim, golden light filtering through the barn's wooden slats, Stella watched Arthur, who was crouched intensely not far away.
Her beautiful blue eyes tracked his every single, microscopic movement. She watched him take only forty-odd, terrifyingly brief seconds to flawlessly, easily pop open a heavy commercial safe that could definitively rank in the absolute top twenty among star security products in the global private market.
Clack. The heavy, steel locking bolts slid smoothly back, echoing loudly in the quiet barn.
Stella genuinely no longer knew exactly what words to use to accurately describe her current, overwhelmingly complex feelings.
Because even though she had been meticulously, rigorously trained for many grueling years and was intimately, flawlessly familiar with the exact internal mechanical structure of that specific private safe,
Stella absolutely still needed a full minute and a half to open it completely under perfect conditions.
And that was undeniably even with the direct, technical help of some highly advanced, professional lock-picking equipment.
In stark, terrifying contrast, this imposing, highly capable young man kneeling right before her had been a completely different story just over a week ago.
Nine days ago, he could absolutely only use basic, professional tension tools to forcibly open common, rudimentary commercial locks found on the open market.
Now, he could flawlessly, effortlessly open a top-tier security vault in less than half her absolute best time, relying completely, solely on raw physical experience and supernatural tactile feel.
Moreover, this incredibly young, ruggedly handsome man was someone she had personally, meticulously taught step-by-step over the past few grueling days.
Stella had personally, closely witnessed his entire, impossible evolution. Under her strict, expert guidance, she had watched him go from being slightly clumsy and relying on raw force, to somewhat unrefined but understanding the mechanics, and then suddenly to handling the tools with absolute, lethal proficiency.
Finally, bit by agonizing bit, his terrifying hands had completely, undeniably surpassed her own legendary lock-picking speed.
For a heavy, suffocating moment, Stella suddenly felt a deep, profound sense of existential doubt washing over her exhausted mind.
She thought bitterly about the warm, encouraging words her beloved father, the legendary lock-picking master John Bridger, had once said to her in this very same barn.
"Stella, you can completely loathe my dark identity as a wanted thief," his deep, gentle voice echoed painfully in her memory.
"But my complex lock-picking techniques are exactly what I have aggressively spent half my entire life meticulously researching."
"You undeniably possess a raw, natural talent far exceeding mine; it would be a massive, tragic waste of the beautiful gift God gave you if you absolutely do not study hard and completely surpass me in this highly specialized field."
"As long as you put your whole heart into aggressively learning, you will surely, flawlessly become the world's absolute top lock-picking master in the future."
Stella swallowed hard, her throat incredibly dry, her hands gripping the edge of the dusty wooden workbench until her knuckles turned pure white.
Father!
Stella silently cried out in her mind, her heart aching with a bizarre mix of grief and absolute awe.
I have now miraculously met someone vastly, terrifyingly more talented than me!
She absolutely couldn't help but vividly recall exactly what Arthur had smoothly, confidently said to her in that desolate motel on the freezing night he had violently rescued her ten days ago.
"A long time ago, I clearly discovered that I possessed an absolutely excellent, supernatural learning ability."
"After permanently becoming an active thief on these dangerous streets, I have also aggressively tried to seamlessly use my massive learning ability to completely make myself physically and technically stronger."
"I am completely, genuinely willing to humbly apprentice myself to absolutely anyone highly capable and aggressively learn more complex, advanced skills."
"Miss Bridger, I have actually been quietly, actively watching your flawless work for a very long time."
"You, exactly like your legendary father, John Bridger, are both absolutely top, undisputed masters in the highly complex field of [Lockpicking]."
"This time, I violently risked my own life returning to Steve's heavily armed luxury villa to aggressively save you, There was absolutely another massive, underlying reason: I desperately hoped to actively get on your good side."
"And then completely, humbly apprentice myself directly to you to flawlessly learn your advanced, world-class [Lockpicking] techniques."
These highly calculated, honest words flashed violently through her racing mind, leaving Stella completely, utterly speechless in the dusty barn.
This absolutely isn't just a 'decent' learning ability! Stella thought, her blue eyes locked onto his broad, muscular back. This terrifying, impossible learning ability is simply heaven-defying!
Arthur Sterling slowly, methodically put down the thin metal tension tools in his calloused hand.
The raw, unfiltered excitement currently burning in his cold, calculating heart was completely beyond words.
For the past nine grueling days, he had basically stayed entirely locked within this isolated, quiet farm belonging to the Bridger family.
Even though he absolutely had to aggressively go out every now and then to securely buy fresh daily necessities and hot ingredients to keep them fed,
The absolute total time spent doing so on the road would not exceed a mere three hours over the entire week and a half.
Over the past nine agonizing days, Arthur had meticulously, ruthlessly maintained only a bare minimum of about four short hours of sleep each night.
During the absolute rest of the grueling time, he was either sitting intensely under Stella's brilliant guidance, actively absorbing her highly advanced, world-class [Lockpicking] techniques and complex mechanical knowledge,
Or he was aggressively, relentlessly practicing on his own in the dark, flawlessly digesting the massive, overwhelming amounts of systematic knowledge that had been violently added directly into his brain after the skill leveled up.
It was precisely because of this absolute, unyielding dedication and terrifying physical stamina that Arthur was able to perfectly use those nine days.
To miraculously, aggressively raise his [Lockpicking] skill, which was originally sitting at only a modest Level 2, directly to the current, god-like height of Level 5.
This specific, highly versatile ability was undeniably one of the absolute first two core skills Arthur had obtained when he first miraculously transmigrated into this chaotic, cinematic world.
Now, it had finally, violently stayed one massive step ahead of his lethal [Driving]skill, with its proficiency level being the absolute first to miraculously reach Level 5.
An Level 5 skill was already incredibly, terrifyingly impressive.
The absolute, exact moment Arthur's [Lockpicking]skill successfully reached Level 5, he had physically felt a massive, staggering amount of complex mechanical information suddenly, violently flood directly into his mind.
It was so incredibly overwhelming that he had to physically sit down and spend an entire, agonizing day just quietly digesting it, nursing a blinding headache, and he absolutely still hadn't completely processed all the new, intricate material yet.
And absolutely all of those flashing schematics, blueprints, and tactile memories were advanced, world-class techniques and knowledge directly related to the [Lockpicking]skill.
Just exactly like with the previous, lower-tier skill upgrades, this time, immediately after the ability miraculously reached Level5,
Countless, highly classified pieces of detailed information about complex locks and related security items developed and created by human engineering appeared flawlessly in Arthur's mind.
This massive data dump included exact internal structures, alloy materials, microscopic mechanical weaknesses, and advanced electronic bypasses!
In other words, exactly as long as it was a physical lock that actively existed anywhere in the civilized world, even those massive, multi-ton titanium doors installed in the world's absolute top federal banks, military vaults, and subterranean treasuries.
They held absolutely no impenetrable secrets in Arthur's supernaturally enhanced eyes.
As long as he was generously given a tiny bit of uninterrupted physical time, he could flawlessly, aggressively open absolutely any of them.
It was just that the exact time required would logically vary depending directly on Arthur's current physical proficiency and real-world, hands-on lock-picking experience.
And right now, standing in the dusty barn, he was absolutely, terrifyingly confident.
That he could easily, flawlessly, and non-destructively open the two massive Worthington 1000 private safes he had aggressively taken from Steve's heavily armed villa ten days ago within five short minutes.
Looking calmly up at the completely shocked Stella standing before him, whose beautiful expression currently held a profound hint of utter disbelief, a touch of heavy bewilderment, and even a microscopic sliver of professional jealousy,
Arthur smiled a faint, highly calculated, mischievous smile!
He knew perfectly well that under the massive, physics-defying enhancement of the omnipotent proficiency system,
The terrifying, superhuman learning ability he had actively displayed had clearly, undeniably shocked Stella to her very core.
Arthur could now be absolutely certain that aside from having slightly less real-world, gritty field experience than the veteran Stella,
With raw physical attributes sitting at more than double Stella's, and the massive, overwhelming amount of technical knowledge permanently added to his brain by the Level 5[Lockpicking] skill,
If he were to aggressively compete directly with Stella to rapidly open the exact same type of heavy lock right now,
The simpler and more mechanical it was, the vastly faster Arthur would be compared to her absolute best effort.
Only with various, highly complex electronic safes that required multiple, sequenced unlocking methods, or even massive federal vaults and subterranean treasuries, would Arthur be slightly less efficient than Stella entirely due to his temporary lack of hands-on field experience.
But given just a little more active time on the dangerous streets to organically gain that crucial experience, he was supremely confident he would completely, flawlessly surpass Stella in absolutely every single metric.
And this would highly likely absolutely not take very long at all.
Not only that, but it was abundantly clear to his highly intelligent mind that an Level 5[Lockpicking] skill would definitively, absolutely not be Arthur's ultimate limit.
Whereas Stella, strictly limited by her normal, human physical attributes and standard biological learning ability,
Barring any impossible, miraculous surprises, she was highly likely at her absolute, maximum technical peak right now.
Thinking of this massive, undeniable tactical advantage, Arthur's cold, calculated mood improved even vastly further.
An Level 5 skill might already fully represent the absolute maximum limit that many brilliant elites among ordinary humans can ever reach in a lifetime, Arthur thought silently, wiping the black grease from his calloused hands.
But I absolutely have no limits.
Exactly as expected, my previous, highly calculated efforts to deliberately, aggressively get on Stella's good side and manipulate her into teaching me were the absolute right tactical move.
If I had to blindly figure out an Level 5 [Lockpicking] skill entirely on my own, who knows exactly how many agonizing years it would have taken to reach this terrifying height.