The Genius Construction Worker Who Moved to America - Chapter 36

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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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Chapter 36

Opening the Earth’s Lifeline

Whirrrrr-! Clang-clang-clang!

With a deafening roar, the winch of the fifty-ton crane began to turn, and the taut steel cable rose at tremendous speed.

Everyone held their breath, their eyes fixed unblinking on the dark vertical shaft.

From within the hole came the sound of muddy water and the dull friction of movement echoing upward.

It felt like the prelude to an earthquake.

“I see something! Dominic—Dominic is coming up!”

Max, watching from the crane’s cab, cried out at the top of his lungs.

At the same moment, Dominic’s upper body emerged from the opening, still clad in his black wetsuit.

“Gasp! Huff, huff, wheeze!”

Dominic tore the breathing apparatus from his mouth and exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

His face and suit were caked with mud, and his shoulders heaved as if pushed beyond their limit.

Even for a man of special forces training, enduring the searing heat and water pressure with his vision obscured was no simple feat.

Exhaustion was plain on his features, yet his expression shone brighter than ever.

“My God! Dominic, you made it!”

“Reach out your hands—this way!”

Leo and Sophia rushed forward and grabbed his arms, hauling him the rest of the way out.

Dominic collapsed onto the ground, gasping at the sky as he fought to catch his breath.

“You did well, Dominic. You’ve saved us all.”

Kang Jun knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Gratitude and trust gleamed in Kang Jun’s eyes as he regarded the man’s sacrifice.

Dominic lifted his head toward Kang Jun and gave a thumbs-up.

“The chains are secured tight. Now we pull it up.”

But there was no time to savor their relief.

A red countdown timer blinked across Kang Jun’s vision.
The digits had just dipped below three minutes.

Every second that passed meant the pressure of the geothermal water trapped below was expanding.

Kang Jun leaped to his feet and shouted toward Max.

“Max! Don’t slow down—speed it up! We need to pull the core out right now!”

“Understood! Maximum power now! Everyone, get back!”

Whirrrr—!!

Max wrenched the lever in his grip with all his strength, and the engine’s output climbed to its breaking point.

Lot 1,248 shook as though an earthquake had struck.

“Come on, come on! Break free already!”

Max’s brow furrowed deeper still.

Kang Jun clenched his fists, eyes fixed on the crane’s wire cable as it twisted and strained toward its breaking point.

Seventy meters underground, the metal mass embedded at a fifteen-degree angle began to shift.

At the same moment, the crane’s massive treads dug into the earth.

One wrong move and the crane’s body could topple forward, or its boom could snap—a critical situation.

Screeeee—!
Bang! Crack-crack!

The steel chain connected to the metal core pulled taut and threw off sparks.

And at last, the breathless tug-of-war found its winner. The crane’s chassis, tipping toward the hole, lurched back to level.

Crack-boom—! Pop-!!

From deep in the earth came a sound like a champagne cork popping—something rupturing and erupting.
Moments later, several tons of steel shaft came hurtling up through the passage, covered in mud and slurry.

Kang Jun, instantly sensing the danger, bellowed a warning.

“Move! Everybody down, flat—now!”

His voice—urgent in a way uncharacteristic of him—cut through the air.
Leo, Sophia, and a heaving Dominic threw themselves flat against the ground.

Booooom—!!

The vertical shaft left by the metal core’s extraction trembled violently, and with a deafening boom, a towering column of brilliant white water erupted skyward.

High-pressure hot spring water, trapped beneath the bedrock for thousands of years, had burst free.

“This can’t be happening! Hot rain—it’s raining hot water from the sky!”

The geyser, spray-misted by friction with the air, created a billowing cloud of steam that descended like a downpour.

Whoooosh—!

Warm rain fell across the backs of Sophia, Leo, and Dominic as they lay pressed to the ground.

Fortunately, the water’s temperature had cooled enough during its trajectory that burns were avoided.

“Kang Jun! Can you stop that water column or not? At this rate, this whole area’s going to be flooded!”

Leo swept his wet hair back, shouting over the roar.
The geyser’s force showed no signs of abating.

But Kang Jun gazed up at the surging column of water, shaking his head slowly.

“Don’t block it. No—you mustn’t block it.”

“What? Just leave it? With all this chaos?”

“If we force it shut now, the passage walls will rupture outward. People and earth are the same. When something’s overstuffed, you don’t seal the mouth—you let it breathe freely.”

Kang Jun was right.

The current phenomenon was like a pressure cooker reaching its limit and opening its safety valve.

If they forced concrete over it and plugged the leak, the heat and pressure would tear through the earth itself.
At worst, a catastrophic sinkhole could consume all of Pasadena.

Kang Jun closed his eyes and poured all his concentration into the Pulse of the Earth skill. The successive drain on his mental strength had already pushed him to the edge of collapse.

Whoosh—

The state of the underground bedrock materialized before his eyes as a real-time holographic display.

The pressure readings of the underground water vein, which had been flashing bright red, dropped noticeably with each burst of hot spring water.

The earth was breathing, finding its stability again.

* * *

In that suffocating tension, approximately an hour passed.

Kang Jun sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, like a master from a martial arts novel cultivating inner strength.

It was to recover, even slightly, his scattered mental focus. He still had work to finish.

Meanwhile, the water column began gradually losing its force.

From a height of ten stories it fell to five, then to two, until it subsided to a mere splash of one or two meters from the cave entrance.

The energy that had been compressed underground had finally been released.

“Sophia.”

As the water mist began to clear, Kang Jun slowly opened his eyes and spoke.

“Where’s the item I ordered from the metalworks a few days ago?”

“Ah—! Yes! Sir! We have it stored in the temporary warehouse!”

Sophia wiped the moisture from her glasses and gestured toward Dominic.

Once he’d recovered enough strength, Dominic bolted toward the warehouse.
Moments later, he emerged pushing a massive cart laden with something.

“Boss! What is this pot lid thing? It weighs a ton!”

Atop the cart sat an enormous steel circular plate, large enough to cover the entire vertical shaft.
And welded directly to its center was a brutish-looking high-pressure gate valve.

“Sir… don’t tell me you had this valve made in advance, knowing something like this might happen?”

Max whistled low in amazement, his voice tinged with disbelief.

Kang Jun gave an indifferent shrug.

“Anyone who’s done some well-drilling on construction sites knows how to finish a job like this. I already laid the foundation with fast-setting cement around the shaft entrance yesterday when I was setting up the drill.”

Max gasped again at Kang Jun’s foresight—he’d even sunk anchor bolts in advance.

“All right, shall we put the lid on?”

Kang Jun strode over and climbed onto the steel circular disc resting on the cart.

Max, perched on the crane, lifted the disc and carefully lowered it into position over the vertical shaft entrance.

The moment the shaft opening and the disc aligned, Kang Jun’s eyes flashed.

[Skill Activated: Human Protractor]

In his vision, dozens of bolt holes and the concrete pad around the shaft opening slid into perfect horizontal and vertical alignment.

“Good, lower it steady!”

Kang Jun threaded the massive special bolts—each as thick as a grown man’s forearm—through the holes drilled along the edge of the steel disc.

No large hydraulic press or mechanical equipment was needed.

He pulled a crude-looking wrench from his toolbox.

As he channeled a craftsman’s grip strength to its limit, the muscles in his forearms rippled.

“Hng—!”

His entire body’s muscles contracted at once, generating tremendous torque. Kang Jun began rotating the wrench with his full weight behind it.

Screech-screech-crack! Bang!
Screech-screech-crack! Clang!

The chilling sound of metal grinding echoed across the yard.

The steel cap was fixed to the earth far more solidly and perfectly than any machine could have managed.

Dozens of bolts tightened by bare hands—a display of inhuman strength none of them had ever witnessed. Everyone stood in stunned silence.

Once the final bolt was secured, Kang Jun exhaled heavily and grasped the handle of the gate valve mounted at the center of the cap.

“Now it’s time to close the door.”

Click, click-click.

As Kang Jun turned the handle clockwise, the hot spring water that had been intermittently spraying out ceased completely.

The steam that had filled the yard gradually dispersed, and silence returned.

Kang Jun plopped down on top of the valve, tore off his hard hat caked with mud and dust. A cool breeze swept through his damp hair.

Ding! Ding-ding-ding!

Alert sounds chimed one after another in his mind.

[Alert Cleared! The pressure in the underground water vein, which had reached a critical threshold, has stabilized.]
[Large-scale Explosion and Sinkhole Collapse Risk: 0%]

“Phew, finally got it sealed.”

Relief washed over Kang Jun’s face as he checked the system window.

Crisis had transformed into opportunity.

On the surface, it was construction work to relieve underground pressure and prevent sinkholes.
But from Golden Gate’s perspective, it was laying the groundwork for a permanent headquarters—the foundation of a corporation in the truest sense.

They had prepared the bedrock for an underground headquarters, a colosseum to rival any above. And beyond that, they’d struck gold—literally. Turn a valve and natural hot spring water poured forth in abundance.

“We did it. We actually did it!”
“You’re incredible, sir!”

Leo and Sophia were rushing forward with cheers when it happened.

Ding-ding-ding!

The system, which had seemed to quiet, flashed red and began flooding the display with warnings.

[URGENT WARNING!]
[Recalibrating durability of the Steel Circular Gate Valve installed by the agent.]
[Measurement result: The valve’s material and specifications cannot withstand prolonged exposure to the 150-degree high temperature and water pressure being pushed up from below.]
[Estimated durability failure: 7 days]

“…What?”

Kang Jun’s face went rigid in an instant.

Eighty meters beneath Pasadena lay a scorching current of water. Its power far exceeded anything Kang Jun had anticipated.

[In one week, if the current valve ruptures, a catastrophic explosion will occur.]
[A new quest has been generated!]

[Quest: Seal the Abyss]
▶ Condition: Within seven days, secure and install an ultra-heavy-duty main valve capable of permanently withstanding 150-degree temperatures.
▶ Reward: [Classified] (Underground Empire Blueprint)
▶ Penalty for failure: Catastrophic steam explosion leading to collapse of Lot 1,248 and permanent revocation of agent status (immediate death).

‘This is… if I can’t seal it, I’m dead either way?’

Kang Jun bit his lip.

Immediate death on failure. Once again, a countdown with his life on the line had begun.

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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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