The Reason Why Women Build Muscle
Down below, everyone, including Hyunwoo, was busy dealing with the fountain of blood, but up here, things were different.
"Doesn't it seem a bit noisy down there?"
"Leave it. It's not like the tied-up hostages can do anything."
In the heart of downtown Seoul, at the top of a high-rise bank building.
A cold tension, sharper than midwinter, hung over the spacious branch manager's office located in the center.
In the middle of the room, the branch manager sat crushed into a sofa that looked like it was about to collapse.
And in front of her sat a woman with her legs spread wide, her feet resting on the desk.
The leader of the Masked Gang, Jang Marin.
A dangerous individual officially branded with a 'Yellow' grade by the Hero Association.
She stood three meters tall, and her forearms were thick and solid enough to grab a scrawny man like a stick and shake him around.
She was, quite literally, a human protein blender.
Right now, she was tapping her combat boots—which looked like stiletto heels—against the floor, staring down the cowering branch manager.
There was no mercy or humor in her eyes.
Only one simple rule dominated: 'If I'm in a bad mood, I hit you.'
"...What are you looking at? Aren't you going to say anything?"
"H-hic... T-that's not it..."
"Is that so? I thought you were staring because you had a death wish."
Hahaha.
Jang Marin rested her arm on the armrest of the sofa, tilted her head, and laughed quietly.
At that single word, the branch manager, who had been trying to straighten her back, curled back up and bowed instinctively.
"Anyway... whether the heroes come or the police come, if I decide to, I can turn everyone here, including you, into a bloody pulp before they even arrive."
That was when it happened.
Jang Marin grabbed both ends of the table in front of her.
And then, she slowly began to squeeze both hands inward.
Like a hydraulic press.
Screech...
SCREEEEECH!
The sound of metal screaming as it tore apart filled the room.
The table crumpled slowly, like a waistline disappearing into nothingness.
"E-eeek...!"
The branch manager trembled in her seat, feeling as if her own skull were being crushed.
THUD!
In that instant, the steel table became a lump the size of a square lunchbox and fell at her feet.
Jang Marin nudged it with the tip of her boot as if it were cute, tilting her head.
"How about that? Something big becoming this small... doesn't it look just like a scared man's dick? It's cute, isn't it? Fufu."
That wasn't something a human would do.
She was, truly, a 'monster' in the flesh.
The branch manager broke into a cold sweat, recalling the events of a few hours ago.
An elite special forces unit dispatched by the police had been deployed to this bank.
Automatic rifles, shields, flashbangs.
A fully armed force that moved with the goal of achieving the fastest suppression possible.
But the result... was a crushing defeat.
Gunshots.
And then, immediate silence.
She had taken dozens of bullets head-on.
In her back, her arms, even near her face.
But there wasn't a single scratch.
The bullets bounced off. Instead of embedding in her flesh, they pinged off like ping-pong balls thrown at a sponge.
The rest went without saying.
Every single member of the special forces unit was smashed by Jang Marin's hands.
For the branch manager who witnessed it all, there was only one choice left.
Keep her mouth shut and never provoke her.
"Right. Just tell me the vault password. Let's end this nicely."
The branch manager trembled in silence for a long time.
The sound of her swallowing dry saliva was unusually loud.
In front of a monster-like villain who could fold a table up to her elbows, she realized that holding out was meaningless.
"T-then... the number is..."
But, at that moment.
BOOOOM!!!
The ceiling shook violently.
The entire floor of the office began to vibrate and rattle, and the coffee cup on the desk rolled away.
"...Huh?"
Jang Marin frowned.
And then.
"Stop."
The door hadn't opened, and no one had entered.
It was just that something, the sheer pressure itself, was pushing in like a physical entity.
The heads of all the Masked Gang members on the top floor turned.
A blonde silhouette entered, backlit by the light.
She had tossed aside her sunglasses, and her eyes were clearly set for combat.
"Villain Jang Marin. Your show ends here!"
Shin Yura.
An officially registered hero of the Korea Hero Association.
And now, the woman who had become the savior of the bank.
"You villain! Let the manager go right now!"
"O-oh! If it isn't that hero who's been hot on TV lately!"
"Shin... Yura? Blonde hair and those legs... Damn, she's annoyingly pretty."
If it had been a normal villain, they would have raised their hands the moment those glowing blonde locks crossed the threshold.
The super rookie the Korea Hero Association was proud of.
'Taeguk Girl' Shin Yura.
Her appearance alone was enough to make most small-time villains surrender on their own.
But the opponent in front of her now was Jang Marin, the leader of the Masked Gang, considered the worst among the criminal organizations in the Seoul area.
"Guys."
She said, rotating her neck as if bored.
"Turn her into a honeycomb."
As soon as those words fell.
RATATATATATA!!
A hail of machine-gun fire erupted.
At the single short command, the room was engulfed in gunfire.
Metal casings rolled on the floor, and the air was instantly filled with the smell of gunpowder.
However.
Whoosh!
Swish!
The dazzling blonde hair flew like a shadow.
"?!"
Shin Yura deflected the bullets with her bare hands.
Her movements were impossibly fast, and her eyes were sharp enough to be suffocating.
"Those bullets are too slow for me."
She closed the distance in a single step.
And the moment the remaining bullets ran out.
"Take this, Taekwondo back-spin kick!"
Whoosh!
Thwack! THWACK!!
"Ugh!"
"Argh?!"
Two members of the Masked Gang were sent flying by the whirlwind kick, not even knowing what hit them.
They slammed into the wall and were knocked unconscious instantly.
"...Ho."
It was the first time Jang Marin's brow furrowed.
"Not bad, are you?"
"Now it's your turn. In the name of justice..."
"Heh heh... try it if you can!"
Jang Marin grinned and reached out her arm.
Just as her massive palm was about to engulf Shin Yura's shoulder.
"Do you think I'd get caught by such a slow attack?"
Shin Yura twisted her body.
Rotating quickly to evade the hand, she put her strength into the tip of her foot, utilizing that momentum.
"Side-swipe kick!"
Her leg soared with a rapid rotation.
It drew a straight trajectory and struck Jang Marin's temple with precision.
THWACK!
However.
"Heh heh heh... is that all you've got?"
"?!!"
Shin Yura's expression stiffened.
It had landed for sure.
The impact, the angle, and the speed were all perfect.
Yet, the opponent didn't even budge.
"I definitely hit her temple dead-on... what on earth is this woman's head made of?"
Shin Yura frowned as she landed.
For a normal human, it wouldn't be strange for their consciousness to be blown away by that impact.
Yet Jang Marin was perfectly fine, without a single drop of blood.
Then, she opened her mouth without even blinking.
"My house was a semi-basement."
"...What are you talking about?"
Jang Marin suddenly started pulling out her life story without any context.
But her expression was serious.
"We were poor. In a semi-basement without windows, in a room where the internet didn't work, all I could do was barely catch a single bar of Wi-Fi on my phone."
Shin Yura frowned as if she were dumbfounded.
"So that's the reason you're fine after getting hit in the temple?"
"It's related!! It's fucking related!!!"
Rumble rumble rumble!
At that moment, the bank building shook entirely with her roar.
It wasn't just simple anger.
"144p quality porn! Infinite buffering! I fought in the speed of a Wi-Fi signal that barely caught one bar. Only to see the truth beyond the resolution!"
Jang Marin shouted, her two fists trembling.
"If you stare at blurry pixels in the bathroom while squatting, your eyes hurt, and naturally, you put strength into your temples. After repeating that for years... I finally 'reached' it."
It was a record of a war that was sad yet desperate, perhaps one that truly drew blood and tears.
"'Self-hardening' occurred in the skull around my optic nerves, and as that combined with the temple muscles, it evolved into a shock-absorption structure! 144p is now real-time 4K to me!"
"Are you serious...?"
"I am... serious."
She turned her body slowly with an eerie smile.
Meanwhile, Shin Yura took advantage of the moment to attempt another approach.
This time, she tried to be a little faster, a little deeper, aiming for a different vital point if the head wouldn't work, but just as she was about to unleash a spin kick.
Grab.
"Ugh?!"
Before her foot could even lift, Jang Marin's hand caught her ankle with precision.
"Did you think I'd miss a real-life target when I can track movements made of pixels?"
The three-meter-tall giant villain lifted Yura up with a relaxed expression.
And at that moment, Shin Yura had no choice but to acknowledge it.
"To have eyes that constantly, to the very end, tried to satisfy sexual desire in such an environment...!"
A life endured through the temples.
A thorough skull perfected by a single bar of Wi-Fi.
"Even though you're an enemy... I have to admit it. You're amazing!"
THUD!
BOOOOM!
Using the grabbed ankle as an axis, Yura's entire body was swung around like a hammer.
"Argh?!"
Due to the monstrous strength pouring from Jang Marin's forearm, she was sent flying head-first into the wall of the branch manager's office.
The entire wall rippled from the impact, and a giant spiderweb of cracks spread out.
Thump.
Falling to the floor, Yura rolled about three times.
Along with a cough, her brilliantly flowing blonde hair was disheveled.
"Ugh..."
"And do you think I made these muscles just like that?! I went to an H-site to watch a manga, and it took 5 minutes to load one page!"
Jang Marin flexed her arms in front of the fallen Yura, showing off her bursting muscles.
"It would turn off while watching, and even if I turned it back on, it would load again... In the end, I had no choice but to imagine my own body as the man in the manga and relieve myself with that!"
Her abs twitched seriously.
"That's how my imagination and muscles were trained at the same time every single day! This body contains that much sincerity!"
"She's too strong... I can't win...!"
And the branch manager, who had been watching the scene from behind.
She could only tremble in the corner, clutching her head with both hands.
Because it seemed that the opposing villain, who she thought was just a muscle-headed pig, possessed an absolute 'power' where even her madness felt like a conviction.
"Against a villain like this, can Ms. Yura... really win?"
It was at that moment.
"Get up. Now is your chance to run."
"Eek?!"
Behind the branch manager, who she thought had fainted, footsteps approached cautiously.
The person who approached as if to help her up was, surprisingly, 'a man'.