The Genius Construction Worker Who Moved to America - Chapter 19

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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 19

The Secret of the Water Channel

Pasadena Old Downtown, Address 1,248.
Beneath this land flowed an enormous geothermal spring vein.

There was only one condition to claim it all.
A Contribution Rate of ninety percent.

That meant handling every stage alone—from design to demolition, material processing, foundation work, roof finishing, and landscaping.

The moment he brought in equipment or borrowed another’s hands, his Contribution Rate would plummet.

“All right then—whether it turns to ash or gold, I’ll take my chances.”

Kang Jun decided to postpone judgment on whether this land would be a blessing or a curse.
If he let this fortune slip through his fingers, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

First came claiming ownership of the land by reaching a ninety percent Contribution Rate.

Kang Jun turned on his heel toward the Site Office.
To stay committed to Address 1,248, he needed to keep the Pasadena Old Downtown restoration project running smoothly.

Ding—!

The moment he stepped through the Site Office door, the atmosphere struck him as utterly transformed from the day before.

The woman who had been sitting on that dilapidated villa sofa yesterday weeping now stood at the far end of the office. She looked like a completely different person.

“Good morning.”

Her hair was neatly bound, her body wrapped in a tailored jacket and H-line skirt, and she wore silver-rimmed glasses.

Yesterday’s melancholy had evaporated entirely. She carried herself with the cool precision of a financier who’d once commanded Wall Street.

Sophia Miller. Golden Gate Construction’s new dedicated accountant.
She rose from her seat and bowed slightly toward Kang Jun and Leo.

“Welcome to work, Mr. Leo. And Site Supervisor Kang Jun.”

President and site supervisor—her swift grasp of the site’s chain of command drew quiet admiration from Kang Jun.

The person most visibly overjoyed by all this was Leo himself.

“Oh, my Jesus! Sophia! Seeing you breathes new life into me!”

Leo’s face crumpled as if tears might spill at any moment, his relief palpable.

He had earned it. These past weeks, Leo had done nothing but chase after Kang Jun doing manual labor while drowning in administrative tasks.

As the money moved in larger volumes and the workforce swelled, he’d been losing hair by the handful.

“Now I can finally breathe again. Sophia, those documents you prepared? The city’s finance department was absolutely floored—and you passed on the first try!”

Sophia’s lips curved in a brief smile, then she turned to sorting the stack of folders on her desk.

Screech—! Crackle—!

Just then, the roar of a dump truck engine echoed from outside the Site Office.
It was Max. He pushed open the office door with one hand, hard hat tucked under his arm.

“Director! Got all that Red Timber and Plywood you ordered. Here’s the delivery slip—just sign off on it later, yeah?”

The easy swagger of a site laborer. Max dropped a hastily scrawled slip of paper onto the desk.

But before Max’s hand could leave the surface, a pale, delicate hand snatched the paper away.
Sophia Miller. She pushed her glasses up and scanned the document.

“That’s all?”

“Huh? What’s wrong, miss? First time I’ve seen your face around here. We’ll just settle everything at the end of the month, all at once. No need to be so picky—we’re busy.”

Max tried to clear his throat and move past it, but Sophia’s eyes were unyielding.

“Stop stalling. Show me the itemized receipt.”

The air in the Site Office went cold.
Sophia drummed her fingers on the table, pressing him.

“This scrap of paper doesn’t have the moisture content of the Red Timber, the production location, the inspector’s name, or the grade certification. Fill in all of it and bring it back.”

“What…?! That’s something we can do later…!”

“Proper transaction records, material quality warranty, shipping manifest from the driver—all of it redone and brought back. No materials are accepted until the documentation is verified.”

Max’s face cycled from red to blue to a sickly white.
Cowed by her presence, he mopped his brow and conceded.

“Fine, fine! I’ll call the main office right now and have them print everything out. Tough as nails, you are….”

Muttering under his breath, Max shuffled out of the office.

Watching him go, Kang Jun felt a quiet certainty settle over him—this reconstruction would run with a transparency no other project could match. Golden Gate Construction was beginning to turn over a new leaf, inside and out.

“Director, once the material inspection documents arrive, I’ll run a secondary cross-check on-site.”

“Excellent, Sophia. I’m placing all documentation and finances entirely in your hands.”

With solid support behind him, Kang Jun’s step was light.

As properly documented materials began flowing onto the site, the restoration work began to run like a well-oiled mechanism.

Kang Jun climbed atop a mound of earth that had been piled up at one side of the work site.

[Skill Activated: Master’s Blueprint (Lv.1)]
A translucent holographic map unfolded before him, data streaming across the site. He raised his Radio and began issuing instructions.

“Excavator Unit 2 in Zone A—don’t pile that rubble to the left. Load it straight onto the truck. You’re tangling the workflow. Crane 3, lower that boom arm another fifteen degrees. The sling belt’s swaying in the wind!”

“Zone B pouring team! Your ready-mix concrete ratio is off—too much water. Add one more sack of cement immediately. Did you forget to account for humidity?”

Kang Jun’s commands flowed without hesitation. He saw everything—the invisible margins of error, the workers’ foot traffic, the blind spots of heavy machinery.

The laborers who’d initially scoffed at orders from some local contractor found themselves with nothing but respect for every word he spoke.

As the skeleton of the site began to take shape, the most challenging work of all lay waiting.

It was the task of mounting arch roofs without a single nail on dozens of structures. For that, he would need to carve thousands of wooden tiles with absolute precision, leaving no room for error.

The temporary carpentry workshop on-site was lined with some thirty senior carpenters from Blackwood.

“Now, this is your moment. Allow me to demonstrate first.”

Kang Jun stepped before the workbench and picked up a sheet of plywood cut to proper size.
With a carpenter’s pencil, he drew quick lines across it, then hefted a two-handed saw.

Whisk-whisk—crunch! Crunch!

The saw’s rhythm echoed through the workshop in steady measure.

Each ripple of muscle in Kang Jun’s forearm drove the blade deeper into the grain. Next came the hammer and chisel, carving grooves and notches along both sides.

Clang! Bang! Tap-tap-tap!

Five minutes. A single wooden tile, twenty centimeters wide and thirty long, was complete.

The watching carpenters rushed over with calipers and carpenter’s squares, measuring the slope, angles, and thickness of the finished tile.

“Impossible. This was carved by hand?”

“The thickness is exactly 15 millimeters! Left groove 8 millimeters, right projection 7.5 millimeters—exactly as you said before!”

Even carpenters with decades of experience stood slack-jawed. Kang Jun held the finished tile high overhead.

“You see? These small pieces will become the roof. If even one groove sits loose or too tight, rainwater seeps in, and the entire roof rots.”

He turned slowly to face the carpenters, driving home the point about zero tolerance for error.

“The heart of this work is precision. Trust your fingertip sense—trust your hands.”

As Kang Jun finished, the carpenters’ eyes gleamed as if enchanted.
In the chests of men who’d spent days firing nail guns, the pride of true carpentry began to kindle and burn.

“All right, let’s show what we can really do.”

“We’ll carve it perfectly. Let’s go!”

The carpenters shouted their commitment and set to work.

Satisfied that the site was now running smoothly, Kang Jun turned his attention elsewhere.
It was time to return to Address 1,248—the place where his focus needed to be.

* * *

Yellow caution tape cordoned off Address 1,248.

Kang Jun ducked under the tape and stepped inside.
A Contribution Rate of ninety percent—to achieve this goal, he’d brought only the bare essentials.

In the tool bag slung across his back lay nothing but a saw, chisels, gouges, an auger, and a pry bar.

Kang Jun gazed up at the two-story structure and clenched his fists.

Activating Craftsman’s Grip Strength (Lv.1), veins bulged across his forearms.
Then he layered on Voice of Materials (Lv.1) as well.

He moved to the center of the yard.

Kang Jun began digging with a single Entrenching Shovel, and thanks to his superhuman Craftsman’s Grip Strength, the hard clods of earth crumbled like tofu under the blade.

Thunk, thunk! Splash!

Once the pit was complete, Kang Jun dragged over a Water Hose and filled it. Then he stacked rubble stones beside it and arranged pieces of broken timber as kindling all around.

It was preparation for steaming the Red Timber that would form the roof’s frame.

He lit the kindling.

Whoooosh!

Crimson flames began heating the stones.

The workers watched Kang Jun’s actions with bewildered eyes, but none dared interfere. This was where the Mark of Authority skill proved its worth.

Hisssss!!!

He pushed the Red Timber boards into the boiling water.

The wood bending work began—a kind of alchemy that only a genius manual laborer like Kang Jun could perform.

After days of struggle, the arch roof frame rose above Address 1,248, and wooden tile shingles were laid without gaps. The house’s restoration was nearing completion.

“Phew… The house is done. Now all that’s left is that pond.”

Kang Jun stripped off his sweat-soaked shirt and approached the neglected pond in the corner of the yard.

One wall had collapsed, earth had washed away, and the pond lay dried out.
At first glance it seemed like an ordinary depression. But the moment he examined it more closely, Kang Jun’s brow furrowed.

“What is this? Why is it built this way?”

He descended into the pond and swept his palm across the exposed cross-section of the collapsed perimeter.
Natural stones interlocked flawlessly. And the gaps between them, along with the entire floor, were wrapped in earthen mortar.

The Voice of Materials skill activated, and text materialized before his eyes.

▶ Object: High-density lime-earth rammed layer and stacked stone structure.
▶ Condition: A natural waterproofing layer compressed over decades.
▶ Special notes: Exceptional waterproofing capability. Precision handwork essential.

Kang Jun let out a long breath.

“Incredible. To find a work of art in the middle of a neighborhood like this.”

Lime-earth ramming.
It was a traditional waterproofing technique: quicklime and ochre earth mixed with coarse sand and salt, then pounded with wooden mallets tens of thousands of times to harden.

The stones surrounding the pond, too, had been painstakingly carved to match the contours of interlocking pieces, leaving not a single gap.

“Huh… This is going to cost real labor.”

One corner of Kang Jun’s mouth lifted. Wasn’t this exactly what he’d been doing like breathing for the past fifteen years?

Kang Jun studied the pond’s shape carefully, committing it to memory before beginning in earnest. Then a question struck him.

‘Wait—how was such a large pond filled with water in the first place? There’s not even a trace of water pipes connected to it.’

Then he noticed a small water channel at one end of the pond.
Though half-buried under a pile of earth, it was unmistakably a Water Channel dug to draw water in from outside.

Kang Jun traced the channel backward.

The water path wound from Address 1,248’s yard, snaking toward the Hill behind Pasadena Old Downtown.

Pushing through brittle weeds, Kang Jun followed the channel as it climbed.
The farther he went, the more his breath caught with wonder.

“Just how far does this thing go…?”

After a long walk, he reached the channel’s source.
There, nestled beneath towering trees, lay a Spring Source where water bubbled up from the Water Source itself, flowing through this narrow channel all the way to the pond in Elm Street’s yard.

Kang Jun knelt and placed his hand at the point where the channel began.
The angle and slope of the path all the way to the pond flickered across his mind’s eye.

“Perfect. I’ve got my estimate. Now let’s boost that Contribution Rate.”

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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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