The Genius Construction Worker Who Moved to America - Chapter 10
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
Savior of Calamity, or Predator
“What on earth is that house…? The roof…. How is that even possible?”
David Scott, mayor of Pasadena, spoke in a voice trembling with astonishment. He paid no mind to his handcrafted shoes sinking deep into the mud.
Elm Street in the Old District looked no different from a battlefield that had endured carpet bombing. Trees lay uprooted in tangled heaps, and even the concrete utility poles were bent like taffy.
Most devastating of all were the wooden houses lining both sides of the street. More than a few had lost their roofs entirely, ripped away by the fierce wind’s lift, leaving only skeletal frames behind.
Yet in the very heart of that devastation.
Only that single house at 1242 stood intact.
Modern structures had been demolished. Yet that aged wooden house, which looked to be over half a century old, stood without a single blemish, perfectly upright.
What captured the mayor’s gaze was the arched roof, which gleamed with a subtle luminescence under the rain.
Thousands of wooden tiles interlocked without the slightest misalignment. It was the work of Choi Kang-jun, who had faced the gale head-on and prevailed.
“Mayor! This is dangerous! Regardless, this is private property!”
Tom, his senior aide, protested urgently, but to no avail. The mayor, already captivated, moved forward until he stood before the house’s entrance deck and gazed up at the roof.
Not a single nail or steel angle bracket was visible. How on earth had it withstood last night’s tempest?
That was when it happened.
Creak—creak—creak.
The old door swung open with the sound of hinges turning.
“Who are you? Trespassing on another man’s property without leave.”
It was Arthur Harrington, an elderly man with white hair gripping a long broom. The old man turned his gaze, following the unfamiliar footsteps in his yard, his gray eyes settling on them.
The mayor flinched backward. Tom quickly stepped forward and produced his identification.
“My apologies, sir! This is David Scott, mayor of Pasadena. I was conducting a damage assessment and inadvertently overstepped.”
“…Mayor?”
Arthur set his broom down on the deck with a thud and lifted his chin. Though cataracts had dimmed his sight, the bearing of a carpenter who had devoted his lifetime to the craft showed no deference before those in power.
Rather, his brow furrowed as if displeased.
The mayor drew closer, his face flushed with excitement.
“Sir, I have but one question. All the surrounding houses are destroyed, yet this roof remains intact. This arched structure…. Who in heaven’s name built it?”
The mayor’s voice was urgent.
He had everything riding on the coming local election. But with the Old District now devastated by the River of Atmosphere disaster, his political career teetered on the brink of ruin.
He needed to secure state funding for immediate reconstruction, yet there were far too few contractors capable of handling it.
What if he could employ that construction method in the disaster recovery effort?
If he positioned this storm-enduring technique as a model for Pasadena’s reconstruction, this catastrophic disaster could become the opportunity that made him a hero.
‘That Eastern architect. I’ll send him a gift.’
A meaningful smile spread across Arthur’s weathered lips.
“What skill could a blind old fool like me possibly have? A genius simply happened to walk through that door, by sheer chance.”
Arthur rummaged through the pockets of his overalls and pulled out a business card dusted with sawdust. He flicked it casually toward the mayor’s chest.
“That’s where the person who performs such magic works. Whether it’ll help, I couldn’t say.”
The mayor caught the business card with fumbling hands.
Gold lettering glinted in the sunlight.
[Golden Gate Interior & Construction. CEO: Leo Spencer]
“Golden… Gate?”
A small neighborhood construction firm he’d never heard of. Yet Mayor Scott’s eyes gleamed like a drowning man who’d spotted a lifeline.
“Tom! Turn the car around now! Every second counts!”
* * *
Meanwhile, in Leo’s office downtown Pasadena.
Soft snores and rumbling breathing filled the air.
Choi Kang-jun lay sprawled on a makeshift cot in the corner of the office, dead to the world.
Leo sat at his desk, grinning widely as he gazed at a settlement statement marked with seventy thousand dollars.
Taking only thirty percent of the revenue Kang-jun had earned, Leo had still raked in several months’ worth of sales in a single stroke.
To him, Kang-jun was already nothing less than a walking golden goose.
Then.
Ding-ding! Ding-ding-ding!!!
A mechanical wail that tore through Kang-jun’s mind. A holographic window flashed red.
[Emergency Quest Generated!!]
[Quest: Savior of Disaster, or Predator]
The great god of architecture does not wish for his Agent’s overwhelming prowess to languish in back alleys. The Old District disaster is your stage. Secure exclusive rights to the restoration contract.
▶ Objective: Obtain sole contracting authority over the Old District emergency roofing and exterior wall restoration project.
▶ Warning: Given the massive budget at stake, interference from major development interests controlling the region is anticipated. Pasadena Mayor David Scott will arrive in 2 minutes.
▶ Reward: [Unrevealed (Emblem of Authority)]
▶ Penalty for Failure: Permanent revocation of Agent status and immediate death.
“…Damn. Won’t even give me a moment’s rest.”
Kang-jun, who’d been dozing fitfully on the worn cot, pressed his temples firmly and ran his hand back through his hair.
It hadn’t even been a full day since he’d cleared the tutorial through casual day work.
He’d thought he’d pocket the settlement money, grab a bowl of soup, and rest—but the merciless system was shoving him into an even crueler game.
“Mr. Choi? What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Leo looked up from the ledger worth seventy thousand dollars, his expression shifting to alarm.
Kang-jun stared at the red message, then caught himself and changed course.
Rather than be dragged along, he’d make this game his own. That was the way of Choi Kang-jun, who’d been grinding through casual labor for fifteen years.
Kang-jun had always been day labor—hauling cement sacks and digging soil for minimum wage.
But his eyes were different.
He’d watched how foremen doctored blueprints to embezzle materials, how the higher-ups lobbied to land government contracts, how subcontracted work was bid down until it bred shoddy construction.
He observed. And observed again.
‘A massive construction company? Sabotage?’
Kang-jun’s eyes gleamed.
He’d survived among countless corrupt bosses. They might dismiss him as nothing more than a middle-school dropout, but the moment a wall started tilting, they’d go pale and come running to Kang-jun first.
When other men spent days scratching their heads over a structural flaw, Kang-jun would spot it with a glance and nail it. It wasn’t a title that made the site run—it was skill.
And besides, this was America, the very cradle of meritocracy.
Under divine favor, Kang-jun had nothing to fear. The fighting spirit forged in the day-labor yards rose like steam from his chest.
Kang-jun cracked his neck, the joints popping audibly. He turned to Leo, who stood dazed, and spoke.
“Boss Leo. How about we stop playing with pocket change and get ready to touch some real money?”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense. We just made seventy thousand dollars.”
Kang-jun gazed out through a gap in the window blinds.
“Look in a mirror and straighten up. We’re about to have a VVIP visitor.”
“A VVIP? But with all this downpour, the roads are washed out. We haven’t had a single customer all…”
Screech! Boom!
Before Leo could finish, a mud-caked Jeep Wrangler screeched to a halt on the road outside.
The door flew open. Two men in business suits were sprinting urgently toward the office.
Kang-jun narrowed his eyes, fixing his prey in his sights.
Pasadena’s most powerful man was walking straight to him, bringing money.
Kang-jun zipped his jacket and tapped Leo’s shoulder.
“Ready to perform? Make it good and loud.”
Leo, who could sense that something enormous—something that would reshape his life—was approaching, swallowed hard.
He nodded vigorously.
Ding!
The door burst open, and the mayor strode in with an air of urgency.
Leo’s eyes widened at the sight of the mayor’s expression, but he quickly schooled his features into the practiced smile of a seasoned businessman.
“Oh! Welcome! Mayor David Scott, is it? What brings Pasadena’s own hero to such humble quarters?”
Leo extended his hand. The mayor, though his expression betrayed discomfort, grasped it eagerly enough, then drew a ragged breath and got to the point.
“There’s no time. The wooden roof at 1,242 Elm Street—that’s your work, isn’t it? It really withstood the storm without a single nail?”
Leo puffed out his chest.
“Of course! That masterwork, rivaling the Milan Cathedral itself, is the creation of our master builder right here—Choi Kang-jun!”
The mayor’s gaze swept past Leo and fixed on Choi Kang-jun. Yet the modest size of the office gave him pause about their construction capabilities.
“What sort of track record do you have on completed projects?”
Zing-zing!
At that moment, a vibration hummed from Tom’s jacket pocket. His face drained of color as he checked his phone.
“M-Mayor, just a moment….”
Tom pulled the mayor urgently into a corner and whispered in his ear.
“We have a problem. Blackwood Construction got ahead of us. They’ve released a proposal to the media demanding an exclusive contract in exchange for free heavy equipment support. The city council chairman has even come out in their favor!”
“What?! Those serpents!”
A string of curses erupted from the mayor’s mouth.
Blackwood Construction—a company that had monopolized municipal contracts by scattering bribes through the political establishment. If they got the job, half the budget would vanish and the work would be shoddy.
Yet Blackwood was the only firm equipped with the heavy machinery needed to restore hundreds of homes and roads in the short term.
No matter how skilled this small construction company was, they couldn’t handle that volume of work bare-handed.
He couldn’t gamble on technique alone.
The mayor’s face contorted. After a long pause, his expression hardened into that of a cold-eyed politician, and he turned to Leo and Choi Kang-jun.
“The situation has become complicated. No matter how exceptional your skill, I can’t justify giving such a massive budget to a single small firm.”
Disappointment flickered across Leo’s face, but Choi Kang-jun remained composed.
“Mayor, the River of Atmosphere—having experienced it firsthand, it was torrential beyond measure. Most homes couldn’t survive it. And they say more rain is coming soon, don’t they?”
The mayor’s expression grew darker. Choi Kang-jun was right.
The meteorological service had issued warnings of another deluge within days.
“That’s true. Last night’s downpour destroyed not just homes but a reinforced riverbank nearly a hundred meters long. When the next storm hits….”
“Then wouldn’t it be best for you to see for yourself and decide, Mayor?”
Choi Kang-jun posed the question with a grave expression.
“That would be ideal, but. Under these circumstances, I don’t have the luxury of weighing multiple contractors against each other.”
Somewhere along the way, the mayor’s heart had begun to lean toward Blackwood Construction.
“Then let me show you at the disaster recovery site. We’ll split the repairs on the collapsed riverbank with our competitors. You can see it yourself and make a judgment.”
It was an absurd survival battle between a megacorporation and a neighborhood corner shop.
The mayor rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. But it was a disaster site that needed recovery regardless. The judgment could wait until after the work was done.
“Very well. Then I’ll divide the contract for restoring the 100-meter collapsed riverbank between Blackwood Construction and your firm. Construction starts tomorrow.”
Leo’s face had gone pale. He waved his hand and was about to speak when—
“Yes, we’ll start right away tomorrow. We’ll repair our section so thoroughly that not a drop of water will leak through. Don’t worry.”
Choi Kang-jun’s gaze was unwavering.
A massive construction company? Heavy machinery? A speed race?
Even if an excavator moved dirt, ultimately, to withstand the water pressure of rapids, one had to set the angles of stones and align the framework.
Stone masonry was purely a craftsman’s domain.
The vision to catch every subtle settlement at the base, every error in stress points.
For Choi Kang-jun, who possessed the Pulse of the Earth skill, building a wall with earth and stone was child’s play.
‘Stone masonry… maybe it’s time to show what I can really do.’
A day labor war began—a megacorporation with its heavy machinery versus a bare-handed laborer.
The Genius Day Laborer Who Crossed to America Episode 10
Author
Kalman
Publisher
Titan
Planning / Editing / Production
Lee Sung-guk
Cover
Studio Inerus
UCI
G720:N+A036-20260819030.0010
ⓒ2026, Kalman
※ This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of this work may be reproduced or modified in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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