Men Are All the Same
Woojin stared down at his grotesquely overgrown right arm.
The arm had swollen by more than thirty-three percent, and while it was imposing, it was also wildly unbalanced and far too awkward for everyday life.
“...Guess I should fix this first.”
Woojin pressed his left hand to his right arm and focused his mana.
“Inverse Enhancement.”
Jiiing—!
Golden mana coiled smoothly around his arm once, then the swollen muscle and bone compressed in an instant, returning to their original sleek size.
As the sleeves that had been stretched to the breaking point finally loosened, Woojin let out a sigh of relief.
And then, like a spark snapping through dry air, an idea flashed through his head.
Wait a second... if I can adjust size however I want, part by part, doesn’t that mean I can make myself taller too?
His heart began hammering wildly.
It was the fate-bound complex every Korean man carried in his bones.
Woojin usually wore height-increasing insoles and shamelessly went around claiming to be 180 centimeters, but in truth, he was 178.8.
How many insoles, and how many hours of bitter reflection, had he spent trying to bridge that unfair, humiliating 1.2-centimeter gap?
Woojin immediately opened his status window and scanned his lower body.
[Target: Calf of Augmentor Kim Woojin]
[Current Length: 40.8 cm]
[Available Enhancements: Length, muscle density, bone strength... ]
The calves would be enough.
Woojin focused on the length of his calf, laid his hand on it, and tried to enhance it.
“Enhance.”
[Enhancement successful.]
The bones below his knees seemed to part ever so slightly, and in the gap, new bone cells rushed in to fill the space.
There was no pain.
If anything, it was a familiar, ticklish thrill, as though the growth plates he’d forgotten existed had opened again and run through his entire body.
Ten percent of 40.8 centimeters—4.08 centimeters—had been added in a flash.
Woojin slowly rose to his feet.
The world rose with him, subtle but undeniable. Even the air seemed different up here.
He had evolved from 178.8 centimeters to 182.8.
It was only a four-centimeter difference, but to Woojin, it was a revolution that had changed the view of the world itself.
“Ha... it works? Seriously?”
He laughed in a rush of exhilaration.
The impossible problem that plastic surgeons and growth clinics around the world had struggled with for decades had been solved in a few seconds with a handful of mana.
If the people who spent tens of millions of won on painful bone-cutting procedures just to gain one centimeter heard this news, what the hell would they do?
And on top of that, there were no side effects. It was completely safe.
Its value was astronomical. That much was obvious.
Catherine narrowed her eyes and studied the changed Woojin.
It was only four centimeters, but even she could feel the difference clearly.
“Woojin... did you just get taller? You suddenly feel completely different... .”
A man over 180 centimeters looked different from the moment you saw him.
And since it had only lengthened his legs, his proportions were perfect too.
Woojin looked at himself in the full-length mirror and grew greedier.
“Since I’m taller now, I should probably fix my shoulder width too. Balance matters.”
He placed his hands on his collarbones and shoulders.
The target was to expand his shoulder frame and deltoids.
“Body Enhancement.”
Crack—!
His shoulder bones spread outward, and his chest broadened with majestic presence.
It had only been a ten-percent expansion, but the result was completely different.
With his 182.8-centimeter height and Pacific-Ocean-wide shoulders, Woojin was now the very image of a finished masterpiece of male beauty—an aura so overwhelming that no one could casually approach him from a distance.
Catherine’s cheeks reddened, and her lips trembled.
Her gaze swept over Woojin’s broadened shoulders, then slowly drifted down to her own chest.
Something like terrible anguish—and desperate longing—began to creep into her eyes.
“Um... Woojin. That skill you just used...”
Woojin had been admiring his perfected body when he turned at Catherine’s call.
Her expression was a far cry from her usual cool, composed demeanor.
She looked like a terminal patient who had just discovered a miraculous cure.
“Yeah, sis. What is it?”
Catherine darted a glance around, checked that Gabi was off in the distance building a castle out of shattered furniture debris, and then hurried closer to Woojin.
“W-Well, you’ve got Eileen, Yu Jihyun, and Jo Ayoung already, right? Right?”
“Th-that’s right?”
“Th-then whatever favor I ask you for... could you just treat it like part of your work? No personal feelings involved?”
“R-right? Like, what am I supposed to do to my own sister? But what are you trying to say? You’re dragging this out...”
At Woojin’s anxious question, Catherine made a grave decision and said, “What I’m about to say is just... no, wait. Yes! Think of it as a patient consulting a doctor!”
She took a deep breath, then shouted as if throwing a bomb.
“P-Please make my chest bigger!!!”
“......Huh?”
Woojin stared blankly, mouth hanging open.
“N-No, sis... you’re already beautiful enough. You look like a model, your proportions are great, and...”
Woojin’s clumsy attempt at comfort brought tears to Catherine’s eyes.
“Don’t lie to me!!”
“I-I’m not lying...”
In fact, it was a simple fact that if you walked down the street, it was hard to find a woman prettier or better built than Catherine.
But Catherine trembled with indignation, then suddenly undid one button on her shirt and shoved a hand inside.
“N-No! Sis! Are you crazy? What are you doing in front of me?”
Woojin was so shocked he tried to turn away, but Catherine was relentless.
What came out of her hand was none other than thick silicone pads—the so-called fake enhancement inserts.
And not just one layer either. Two layers on each side, four pads in all, thudded weakly to the floor.
“......”
“......See? This is my real body! Just because I’m a blonde white woman doesn’t mean I’m naturally blessed, okay? That’s a stereotype!!”
“......”
With tears pooling faintly in her eyes, Catherine exposed Kim Chulsoo’s crime.
“You don’t know, do you? The disappointed look that bastard Kim Chulsoo gave me for that split second when he saw the real me without the pads!!”
“R-really? Mister Chulsoo...?”
How many lives did that man have...?
“No! Men are all the same! They say with their mouths, ‘Catherine, you’re beautiful just the way you are,’ but they can’t fool my eyes! I saw Chulsoo’s pupils tremble when he felt the lack of that nice, soft give during a hug! And he—he’s got some worm-sized thing growing in his pants and still has the nerve!!”
Woojin’s neck twinged painfully.
He would very much have liked to pretend he had not heard the “worm” comment.
More shocking than the fact that the two of them were already in a deep relationship was the devastating physical secret of Mister Chulsoo.
But right now, what was even scarier was Catherine, whose pride was collapsing in front of him and sending her into a full-blown frenzy.
“Money!! I’ll pay you! Please... please, even a full C cup, no—D cup would be fine!!!”
Woojin was at a loss.
To use Body Enhancement, it wasn’t enough to simply project mana from a distance; the enhancer had to touch the target area directly and delicately control the flow of mana.
For height or shoulders, that was fine—the bones were visible from the outside. But breasts... that was a completely different matter.
“B-But, sis. To use Body Enhancement, I’d have to... um... touch you directly. I need to inject the mana by hand. I don’t think this is exactly...”
Catherine flinched, her face reddening, but then answered with ironclad resolve.
“Plastic surgeons touch you all the time when they operate! This is medical treatment! I don’t mind! I trust you, Woojin! Just think of Woojin as my doctor!”
Catherine was desperate.
Once this Indochina expedition was over, she had already planned to secretly book an appointment at a famous plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam.
But implant surgery carried the risk of side effects, and above all, there was the stigma of being fake—the foreign-body feeling that remained when someone touched them.
What was the point of being big if it was counterfeit?
But if her own tissue could grow through enhancement?
That was practically natural-born.
It would be nothing short of a miracle.
“I don’t need money, sis. But if it were a stranger, maybe, I guess... but touching a sister I know in that way is just... morally...”
Then Catherine suddenly gripped Woojin’s shoulders and looked at him with deadly seriousness.
All trace of playfulness vanished from her voice.
“Kim Woojin.”
“Yes?”
“I really do think of you as a precious younger brother. I’ve always kept my distance and spoken respectfully because you’re Eileen’s beloved, but... I can’t help feeling attached to your siblings too.”
She stared into Woojin’s eyes with aching sincerity.
“You think I’m a good older sister too, don’t you? Then grant me one wish. This isn’t just about looks. It’s about my shattered self-esteem—and the outcome of my love.”
“...Is it really that important?”
“I guarantee it. Once Eileen hears you can do this, maybe not her, but Yu Jihyun and Jo Ayoung will be hanging off your pants legs. Jo Ayoung especially would be relentless. She and I trade enhancement info about pads all the time.”
“J-Jihyun too? Jihyun looked... fine enough to me.”
“A woman’s greed has no end! And this is all because of you men!!”
Catherine launched into a furious tirade.
“Look at Young Master Sangjin! The summons he calls maid summons are undead? What undead? You can’t even tell if they’re zombies or cattle! What else do you think that means?”
Woojin remembered the overwhelming volume of Sangjin’s attendants, Eroa and Lumi.
Sure enough, Sangjin had very definite tastes.
“You men are the ones who make women obsessed with appearances like this! Men are all the same! You like big, you like pretty! So women end up the same way! Wanting to look perfect for the person they love isn’t a crime!”
At Catherine’s outburst, Woojin’s resolve began to crumble.
She wasn’t exactly wrong.
If enhancing the value of something was the enhancer’s fate, then what did it matter whether the target was a weapon or a person?
“...I’ll do it. But this is a secret I’m taking to the grave.”
“That’s right! Woojin, that’s my brother! This is just like putting ointment on a wound if my chest gets hurt! Let’s call it treatment!”
“That is not even remotely the same, sis...”
“It is too! My chest is basically sick because it can’t grow!! Hurry up and start!!”