The Genius Construction Worker Who Moved to America - Chapter 22

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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 22

Visa Expiration and the Prelude to Counterattack

Creak—

The door to the site office swung open, and Kang Jun and Leo stepped inside.

Leo’s eyes were rimmed red, tears threatening to spill at any moment. Kang Jun’s expression, too, was far from bright.

Sophia, who had been reviewing documents at her desk, caught the weight in the air between them. She adjusted her glasses and asked carefully.

“Why do you both look like that? You said you were meeting with the mayor… Has something gone wrong?”

At her question, Leo let out a heavy sigh and collapsed onto the sofa.

“This is no ordinary problem, Sophia! Immigration! Damn Immigration has gotten involved! This… our company is finished!”

Leo clawed at his hair as he spoke.

“Immigration? Why would they suddenly be involved?”

“Blackwood orchestrated this. They’ve challenged Mr. Kang’s residency status. They’re claiming that a foreign national holding an ESTA Tourist Visa controlling a construction site constitutes Illegal Employment, and they’re pressuring City Hall.”

Leo’s voice trembled as he continued.

“Starting tomorrow morning, they’re pulling all Blackwood personnel and equipment from the site. We’re only halfway through the project… The Delay Penalties alone will exceed several million dollars!”

Sophia’s pupils dilated as she listened to his explanation.

She was the one who had meticulously aligned everything—the twenty million dollars in advance funding from City Hall, the corporate tax exemptions, the payroll ledgers.

But if the equipment and personnel were stripped away and Kang Jun, as the project manager, was deported as an illegal resident, all those numbers and documents would become worthless scraps of paper.

Then Kang Jun slowly lifted his head and looked at Sophia.

“Sophia.”

“…Yes, Director.”

“That five percent incentive I mentioned to you—roughly two point five million dollars—it may well vanish into thin air.”

Two point five million dollars.
It was Sophia’s first lifeline to pay off the debt she owed to a massive Wall Street financial firm.

‘No. I can’t go back to hiding like before.’

Sophia’s eyes blazed. The genius accountant within her had awakened once more.

Sophia sprang to her feet and approached Kang Jun.

“Director.”

“Speak.”

“Is there anything I can do to help? I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Sophia’s voice trembled with urgency.

Kang Jun reached for the water bottle on the table, took a drink, and began to explain the situation.

“The visa I have is an ESTA Tourist Visa. I don’t have much time left to stay in the United States. And it’s also true that under immigration law, you can’t work on a tourist visa.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Blackwood seized on that weakness. What they want is for me to step down from my position as project supervisor, and for them to take control of the Old Town restoration project. They’re threatening to report me to immigration tomorrow. Using the equipment and personnel as leverage.”

Kang Jun set down the water bottle and fixed his gaze on Sophia.

“I need to resolve my legal status first. Legitimately, and within days. Sophia, I need your mind.”

Sophia pushed up her glasses as if she’d made a decision, and spoke.

“I’m in debt now, but even so, I’m someone who once uncovered the secrets of a Wall Street corporation with nothing but a few ledger sheets.”

A smile crossed her lips.

“Compared to that mudslinging match back then… this problem is child’s play.”

With that, Sophia sat down in front of a computer in the corner of the office. Behind her, an incredible force seemed to radiate outward.

Clack-clack-clack-clack! Click! Clack-clack-clack!

A tempest of keystrokes.

Across the two monitors scrolled thousands of pages of legal documents—American immigration law, visa issuance regulations, California state emergency disaster protocols, and regulations governing the O-1 visa for individuals with extraordinary ability—flowing ceaselessly past.

She recombined all this information, searching for the solution to their problem.

Within moments, the monitor filled with Kang Jun’s future course of action, the procedures for obtaining a visa, and comprehensive lists of required supporting documents.

Kang Jun and Leo watched in hushed silence, barely breathing.

Half a day had passed.

“Printing complete.”

Whirrrr. Click-click-click.

Sophia set down a thick stack of freshly printed documents on the table.

“Read through it.”

Kang Jun clicked his tongue in admiration as he picked up the documents.

[CONFIDENTIAL: Master Plan for the Legal Visa Acquisition of Kang Jun, an East Asian Tourist]

“Master Plan… the title certainly is grand.”

“It means exactly what it says—a perfect plan. Inside you’ll find every procedure and scenario for obtaining a legitimate status of residence.”

Kang Jun nodded and was about to unfold the report when Sophia lightly pressed the back of his hand and spoke.

“But Director. For this plan to be truly perfect, there’s something you need to do. A very important piece of material that must be attached to this report.”

“Something I need to do?”

Sophia shifted her gaze toward the window and continued.

“I’ve never been able to understand how this construction site has managed to operate without a single blueprint.”

Her glasses gleamed.

“But watching every process run flawlessly, I had no choice but to accept it. My conclusion is that… all these designs must be stored in your head, Supervisor.”

Kang Jun flinched inwardly. Her insight was unnervingly precise.

The Ruler’s Blueprint skill was displaying holograms in real time inside his mind, after all.

Sophia looked directly into Kang Jun’s eyes and spoke.

“Supervisor, you’ll need to draw those blueprints from your head directly.”

“Draw the blueprints myself?”

Kang Jun’s eyes widened in bewilderment as he repeated the question.

He’d spent fifteen years grinding through construction sites.

He was confident he could shovel, pry, and pound with the best of them, but he’d never once sat in front of a computer or touched design software.

Reading blueprints and drawing them were entirely different domains.

“I don’t know how to use CAD or any program like that. I’ve never drawn a single line on a computer.”

Sophia chuckled and dumped a stack of A3 drafting paper and a handful of pencils onto the table.

“You just draw on this paper with a pencil, Supervisor. Crooked lines are fine—just write in the measurements accurately. I’ll convert it to a CAD file and do the rendering, even if I have to pull an all-nighter.”

Kang Jun’s gaze settled as he looked down at the paper and pencils.

“If it’s just drawing on paper, then… let’s give it a shot.”

Kang Jun rolled up his sleeves and pulled an A3 sheet toward himself.
He held a worn pencil stub in his hand, closing and opening his eyes.

[Skill Activated: Ruler’s Blueprint (Lv. 1)]
[Skill Activated: Human Protractor]

Whoosh—!

Kang Jun’s vision flooded with golden light.

The blueprints for the Old Town restoration project projected onto the white paper as translucent holograms.

He began drawing lines across the paper.

Stroke. Another stroke. Stroke.

With each pass of Kang Jun’s hand over the paper, Sophia’s and Leo’s eyes grew wider.

“Oh my… Jesus Christ…”

Leo gasped in disbelief.

The lines Kang Jun drew formed perfect straight lines and angles.

When he drew curves, perfect arcs appeared as if he’d used a compass.

The line weight, shading, perspective—every detail was meticulous and executed with speed.

“No, Mr. Kang! What on earth is your major? Is it art, or mathematics? How are you drawing like that without even measuring?”

Despite Leo’s exclamations, Kang Jun’s gaze remained fixed on the paper.

“Once you’ve got enough field experience, you can eyeball lines like this. Keep quiet, would you? You’re breaking my concentration.”

Scratch. Scratch. Tap.

Each blueprint took barely two or three minutes to complete. The finished drawings were flung carelessly across one corner of the table.

Truss reinforcement floor plans for 150 wooden houses in Old Town, arched roof joinery elevations, stone lime foundation cross-sections for the riverbank retaining walls, and the 2-kilometer contour maps of watercourse 1,248—

Every stage of Pasadena’s reconstruction was inscribed onto paper through the movement of Kang Jun’s fingertips.

An entire day passed in this manner.

Kang Jun’s right hand was blackened with graphite, and the worn-down pencils he’d used numbered in the dozens.
The hand-drawn blueprints he’d produced in what seemed like a fever of creation totaled 324 sheets.

“Well… that should be more than enough, shouldn’t it?”

Kang Jun set down the final blueprint while rolling his neck from side to side.
Then Sophia added something quietly.

“Supervisor. One more sheet, please.”

“What? You’re saying that’s not enough?”

“The house at 1,242—Mr. Arthur’s residence. I’d like the design plans and structural diagrams for the construction method you used there.”

Kang Jun chuckled and sketched out the arched roof and wooden tile joinery of Arthur’s mansion.

The blueprint drafting was finally complete. A perfect Master Plan of 325 sheets.

As Sophia took possession of the drawings, her eyes hardened with intensity.
She tucked the bundle of papers against her chest and turned back to the computer with absolute resolve.

“Now I’m beginning the serious documentation setup. This requires incredible concentration. So get out of here right now!”

“What? You’re throwing us out?”

“Anyone who opens that door before 7 a.m. tomorrow will not be forgiven!”

Pushed along by her ultimatum, Kang Jun and Leo were unceremoniously evicted.

* * *

The next morning at 7 a.m. sharp.
Kang Jun and Leo carefully opened the site office door.

“Ugh, what is that smell…?”

The moment the door swung open, a thick haze of cigarette smoke hit them. The office interior looked like a war zone shrouded in fog.

And through that billowing smoke, illuminated by the monitor’s glow, sat Sophia.

Her hair was disheveled as though it had taken a blast, and the dark circles beneath her eyes descended all the way to her jawline.

The ashtray on the desk was piled high with cigarette butts.

She stopped typing at the sound of the door opening and turned her head.
Sophia recognized the two visitors and set down her overnight work on the table.

“I’ve just finished. Please take a look.”

On the table lay a thick, neatly bound binder.
Kang Jun’s eyes widened as he opened it.

The three hundred and twenty-five drawings he had sketched yesterday had been converted into 3D CAD files and printed. Moreover, each drawing bore perfectly attached annotations including structural calculations and material requirements.

“In a single night… you digitized all of this enormous volume?”

Kang Jun and Leo were left speechless by Sophia’s persistence and analytical prowess.

Sophia gathered her disheveled hair with a rubber band wound around her wrist and tied it up.
Then she turned to Leo and spoke with urgency.

“Director. We don’t have time for admiration. Can you get me two plane tickets to Canada right now? The earliest available?”

“C-Canada?! Why on earth would we go there all of a sudden?”

Leo’s eyes went wide as he stammered, and Sophia crossed her arms, answering with quiet resolve.

“To save the director’s visa, we need to step outside the border and face re-examination by the American consulate. We’ll go to the American consulate in Vancouver, Canada.”

And so, the opening act of their counterattack against Blackwood—who had been wielding Kang Jun’s weakness as a weapon—began to unfold.

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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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