The Genius Construction Worker Who Moved to America - Chapter 37

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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 37

An Unexpected Thread

[Estimated Time Until Durability Breakdown: 7 Days]

A red warning window flashed silently in the air.

“Hah… seven days.”

Kang Jun withdrew his hand from the valve and sighed.

The thickness and fit of the steel plate were flawless. Yet the raw power surging up from beneath his feet transcended human logic entirely.

Without invoking the Aesthetics of Destruction, his natural instinct alone screamed a warning.

‘I’ve bought time for now. But this valve won’t hold.’

The real problem was the seven-day window the system had imposed.

A main valve designed to control 150-degree water surging from the abyss.
A specialized valve of that caliber wasn’t something he could procure on the spot.

Even if he commissioned it, fabrication would take months at minimum.

“Mr. Choi! Your face—is something wrong? Have we run into a problem?”

Leo approached, studying Kang Jun’s expression carefully.
The moment Kang Jun bit his lip to explain the situation—

A low roar rose from beyond the fence.

“Mr. Choi! Where are you? You’d better explain what’s going on here!”

“That’s right! The ground shook like an earthquake! And what was that water spout just now!”

Suddenly, the area around 1,248 Address erupted into chaos.

A crowd of at least thirty or forty residents was pouring in.

Leading them was Brown, chairman of the Old Town Neighborhood Committee.

The vibrations from the vertical drilling machine, and moments ago, the water column that had shot skyward.

Faced with what seemed like a natural disaster, the residents’ fear was only natural.

“Mr. Choi! We know you saved Old Town, but this is too much! Are you drilling for oil in the middle of a residential neighborhood!”

“That’s right! We’re grateful you fixed our homes, but now we’re terrified they’ll collapse again.”

Brown and the residents looked ready to overrun the perimeter and burst into the yard.
Their voices mingled resentment toward their savior with the raw terror of survival.

Max and the workers rushed forward to block them, but their efforts proved insufficient against the anxious mob’s momentum.

“Everyone, please calm down! This is an active construction site—it’s dangerous!”

“Dangerous? Our house’s wall cracked just moments ago. Isn’t that more dangerous?”

A site transformed into chaos.

While Leo shifted his weight from foot to foot, Kang Jun adjusted his hard hat and stepped forward.

“Sophia. Bring the thing we prepared.”
“Yes, sir.”

Sophia grabbed her document case and followed in Kang Jun’s wake.

Kang Jun approached Brown, who was locked in an argument with the workers.
And toward Brown, who was about to raise his voice further, he suddenly bowed deeply.

“…Eh?”

Brown froze, mid-objection. The residents trailing behind him wore bewilderment plainly across their faces.

Kang Jun straightened, his expression earnest and unguarded, and spoke.

“People of Pasadena, and Chairman Brown. I must first offer my sincere apologies. The noise and vibrations have caused you considerable inconvenience, and I failed to explain the situation beforehand. There is no excuse sufficient to cover my fault. I am truly sorry.”

An apology of such dignity. Not a trace of evasion in his tone.

Chairman Brown, who had been leading the charge, let out a measured cough and quietly lowered the finger he’d raised.

“Ahem! Well, well… it’s not so much that Mr. Choi made a mistake…. But what exactly is this construction that’s causing water columns to shoot up?”

Brown’s tone had softened considerably as he demanded an explanation.

Kang Jun deliberately sighed heavily and shook his head.

“I understand how it sounds like an excuse… but the situation was far too urgent. If we hadn’t acted, Old Town would have disappeared from the map.”

“What, what did you say? Disappeared from the map?”

At Kang Jun’s shocking words, the residents began to murmur among themselves. He gestured toward Sophia, who stood behind him.

Sophia pushed her glasses up and stepped forward through the crowd.
She withdrew file folders from her document case and distributed them to Brown and several others.

“These documents are the Environmental Impact Assessment exemption approval and geological survey data issued by Pasadena City Hall. Please review them for yourselves.”

Brown unfolded the papers with trembling hands.

There, alongside Mayor Scott’s official seal, was a subsurface schematic printed in red.

“What in the world is this diagram?”

“Allow me to explain briefly.”

Sophia picked up a pen and pointed to a spot on the schematic.

“Rainfall from the Great Plains of the atmosphere seeped underground and caused the aquifer beneath Pasadena to rise sharply—very rapidly indeed.”

She threaded expert terminology through her explanation, maintaining command of the room.

“If Golden Gate hadn’t used a Vertical Drilling Machine yesterday to relieve the underground pressure… within days, this entire area would have collapsed. That means…”

Kang Jun picked up where Sophia left off, bringing the point home.

“It means everything within a one-kilometer radius of where you stand, including your land, would have collapsed into the sinkhole. A catastrophe beyond imagining.”

“A sinkhole? Is that really what happened…?”

“Oh, my God! Lord…!”

Cries erupted from the crowd of residents.

The city’s official documents, Sophia’s logical and well-structured briefing, and Kang Jun’s grave demeanor.
There was no room for doubt.

The residents who had been voicing complaints moments before now clasped their chests in relief, grateful that Golden Gate had moved so swiftly to save their lives.

“Then… that column of water that just erupted—it was pressure escaping, wasn’t it?”

Brown’s voice had grown considerably softer. Kang Jun nodded firmly.

“Exactly. As you can see, we’ve capped it off to keep it under control now.”

Kang Jun’s eyes moved to the Steel Plate embedded in the center of the yard.

The residents’ gazes naturally followed to the metal object. Brown stepped cautiously toward the Steel Plate.

“It’s really safe, isn’t it? It won’t burst open, will it?”

“You can verify it yourself. Would you like to place your hand on the cap?”

At Kang Jun’s suggestion, Brown hesitantly reached toward the plate.
The moment his palm made contact—

“Ow! It’s scorching!”

Brown cried out in alarm, jerking his hand back.

“What on earth is this! Why is the metal cap so hot!”

As Brown retreated and the residents murmured anxiously, Kang Jun unfolded a blueprint he’d prepared in advance.

“There’s no need for alarm. Beneath your feet lies an enormous natural hot spring.”

“…A hot spring?”

Everyone fell silent at the unfamiliar word that had left Kang Jun’s lips.
The idea of a natural hot spring erupting in the middle of a residential neighborhood was beyond common sense.

“That’s right. Once we’ve completed the foundation reinforcement work, we plan to construct a Hot Spring Resort on this site.”

Kang Jun’s eyes gleamed. He drew a wide circle in the air, stimulating the residents’ imaginations.

“Think about it. A spa and resort drawing thousands will rise in this aging Old Town. New jobs will open for Pasadena residents, and the surrounding commercial districts will flourish. Don’t you wonder what your property values will become?”

The magic words—”property value” and “jobs”—that Kang Jun had dangled.
In America, the heartland of capitalism, no spell was more powerful than these.

The residents’ eyes, trembling with anxiety moments before, began to glimmer with greed dressed up as hope.

Kang Jun didn’t stop there. He tossed another tempting carrot toward Brown.

“In particular, we plan to lease the premium plaza section on the lobby level of the resort to you at no cost. This will allow you to sell Pasadena specialty goods and tourism products.”

“Free of charge, you say?”

In that instant, a sound escaped Brown’s lips—something between a gasp and a wheeze. His eyes gleamed as if dollar signs were dancing in them.

Monopolize a prime shop location inside a major resort? And for free, no less?
It was nothing short of landing in a pile of money.

“Oh, to think you care so deeply for the local residents!”

“Mister Choi! You truly are Pasadena’s hero!”

The crowd that moments ago had been ready to hurl abuse had vanished without a trace. Chairman Brown seized Kang Jun’s hand with an excited grip.

Leo and Max watched this absurd about-face unfold and shook their heads in disbelief.

Then Kang Jun lowered his voice and offered a word of caution.

“However, Chairman, there is one thing you must keep in mind.”

The cheerful atmosphere evaporated in an instant.

“This Hot Spring Resort project is currently undergoing confidential negotiations with investors. We haven’t even finalized the deal yet. If word leaks out about the hot spring being discovered, the investors may pull out entirely….”

Kang Jun pressed on with even firmer conviction.

“The moment rumors spread, my offer becomes void.”

It was the classic tactic—dangle a carrot before someone’s mouth, then plant the fear that it might be snatched away.
A masterful psychological maneuver that sealed lips completely.

“Gasp…! Secret! Absolutely secret! You bet it is!”

Brown made a zipping motion across his lips. Then, with practiced nonchalance, he turned to the residents and shouted.

“Everything you’ve seen and heard here today goes to the grave with you! If anyone so much as breathes a word about the hot spring, they’re expelled from the Neighborhood Committee!”

“Yes! We saw nothing! We only saw a house being repaired after it collapsed!”

With the crowd dispersed, Chairman Brown and the residents began filing out, glancing nervously at one another.
Only then did Leo’s legs give way, and he collapsed in a heap, speaking in hushed tones.

“Phew… If a complaint had been filed with City Hall, the Mayor would’ve shut down the project immediately. Mister Choi, how on earth are you so good at handling people?”

“Back in Korea, for any construction project to run smoothly, the skill to appease complainants matters far more than moving earth.”

Kang Jun let out a soft chuckle. Yet in his mind, the countdown continued relentlessly.

It was as Kang Jun stood absorbed in thought.
Chairman Brown, who had turned to leave, tossed a casual remark to one of his companions—a phrase that caught Kang Jun’s ear.

“Truly, it was worth helping Mister Choi build that bridge! Wouldn’t you say?”

“Golden Gate certainly takes good care of us, that’s for sure. I wish Blackwood would follow their lead even halfway.”

Brown spat on the ground and continued.

“One measly Deep-Sea Drilling Ship sitting in Long Beach Harbor—what’s so difficult about handling that? They’ve been dragging it out for months now, making speeches about it. These big corporations, tch.”

It was the idle grumbling of a local notable, easily overlooked. But one word from the scattering voices planted itself firmly in Kang Jun’s mind.

‘A deep-sea drilling ship?’

Kang Jun called out urgently after Brown, who was walking away.

“Chairman! Just a moment!”

Startled by the sharp call, Brown spun around in confusion.

“Yes? Director. What is it? Were you perhaps thinking of expanding the commercial space…?”

“What did you just say? There’s something at the harbor?”

Brown swallowed hard, overwhelmed by the intensity in Kang Jun’s eyes, and stammered.

“Ah, well, there is one headache of a problem near Pasadena at Long Beach Harbor. A tremendously large ship used for drilling oil in the sea.
A deep-sea drilling ship. It’s reached the end of its life and needs to be decommissioned, but the dismantling work has been dragging on, or so I mentioned….”

The more Brown explained, the faster Kang Jun’s heartbeat became.

A drilling ship. A pinnacle of human engineering that withstood the water pressure of thousands of meters beneath the seabed, driving pipes into rock.

What captured Kang Jun’s attention in particular was the blowout preventer valve installed at the very bottom of the drilling shaft.

The ultimate steel seal — more durable than any industrial valve in existence.

That extraordinary piece of equipment, waiting to be dismantled as Blackwood Construction’s troublesome burden!

“Ha… haha!”

Laughter burst from Kang Jun’s lips.

He wasn’t beaten yet.

The system’s seven-day quest — the answer had tumbled out, completely unexpectedly, from a petitioner’s mouth.

Kang Jun’s gaze turned toward the south, where the scent of the sea drifted in from the distant Long Beach Harbor.

‘That’s it. With that drilling ship’s valve, even 150-degree hot spring water would be no problem!’

He had seized upon an unexpected thread to break through the crisis.

In his dark eyes, the image of the drilling ship began to take shape.

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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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