"I've brought one back!"
Alice’s cheerful voice drifted in from the main entrance.
She was clutching a "creature" dressed in tattered robes, still twitching all over, dragging it into the hall like a dead dog.
"Director, this 'bird-person' is a bit strange."
Alice tossed the unlucky soul onto the floor, tilting her head, her red eyes filled with confusion.
"She doesn't have any wings."
"And she hasn't grown any feathers."
"The strangest thing is..."
Alice extended her great scissors and poked at the person’s bulging headscarf.
"Her hair... it seems to bite?"
Victor set down the report in his hand and walked over.
The "captive" on the floor was curled into a ball, shivering violently.
She didn't possess the hideous bird talons and wings of the other harpies; instead, she had a pair of long, fair human legs.
Though she was covered in leaves and mud, and a massive purple-blue bump had formed on her forehead, one could still see that she was a woman with extremely alluring curves.
She was clutching her face tightly, her head wrapped in a thick, grey headscarf made of an unknown material.
Beneath that headscarf, just as Alice had said, something was writhing eerily.
A "hissing" sound emanated from it.
"Don't... don't look at me..."
The woman let out a terrified shriek, her voice raspy and thick with tears.
"I'm a monster... you'll die if you look... please, don't look at me..."
She kept her eyes squeezed shut, her hands desperately trying to wrap the headscarf even tighter, as if it were her last shred of dignity.
"A monster?"
Victor arched an eyebrow.
At the Benevolent Heart Clinic, the one thing they weren't short of was monsters.
"Miss, please calm down."
Victor crouched down and activated the 【True Sight Eye】.
A red scanning beam swept over her.
【Rare biological sample detected.】
【Race: Medusa (Gorgon · Mixed-blood).】
【Status: Concussion (caused by collision with a tree), severe malnutrition, extreme low self-esteem.】
【Special Status: Petrification Curse (Eyes).】
"A Medusa?"
Victor was somewhat surprised.
This was a legendary magical creature.
A terrifying existence said to be able to turn anyone into stone with a single glance.
But the one before him...
No matter how he looked at it, she seemed more like a bullied little bride.
"Uh... could you let go of your hands first?"
Victor attempted to communicate with her.
"I am a doctor. Our anti-aircraft cannon might have accidentally injured you just now. As compensation, I can give you a full physical examination for free."
"No! No!"
The Medusa shook her head frantically, tears streaming from the corners of her closed eyes.
"You can't look... my eyes... they're toxic..."
"You'll turn into stone if you look... uuuu..."
"And... my head... it's so ugly... so scary..."
She cried even harder, her body curled up like a cooked shrimp.
"Your head?"
Victor shifted his gaze to the still-writhing headscarf.
Through the X-ray functionality of the 【True Sight Eye】, he clearly saw the scene beneath the cloth.
In that moment.
Even for the widely experienced Director Victor, he couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
"Hiss—"
"This is just too..."
"Too messy!"
It wasn't out of fear.
It was because... his OCD was acting up.
Beneath that headscarf, it wasn't human hair.
It was dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of small, multi-colored venomous snakes.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem.
A Medusa having a head of snake-hair was normal; it was a racial trait.
But the problem was...
These snakes were all knotted together!
It was a literal, physical "dead knot."
Because they had been stifled under the headscarf for a long time, these little snakes had intertwined, bitten, and twisted around each other, eventually becoming a massive, despair-inducing lump of flesh.
Some snakes had been strangled so hard their eyes were rolling back.
Others, in a struggle for space, had bitten their companions' tails, forming an unbreakable Mobius strip.
Worse still.
Because these snake-hairs were tangled so tightly, they were strangling the Medusa's scalp, causing congestion, inflammation, and even ulceration in some spots.
"No wonder you hit a tree."
Victor sighed, his eyes filled with the pity of a doctor.
"It's not because you're stupid."
"It's because these 'hairs' are strangling your optic nerves and compressing the blood vessels in your brain."
"This has caused you to suffer from severe migraines, as well as... secondary blurred vision."
"To put it simply."
Victor delivered his diagnosis.
"Your hair is too messy; it's starving your brain of oxygen."
The Medusa froze.
She stopped crying, her tightly closed eyes trembling slightly.
For hundreds of years.
Everyone who saw her either screamed and fled or drew their swords shouting, "Die, enchantress!"
No one had ever...
No one had ever cared if her head hurt.
"I... I didn't want this either..."
Her voice dropped, full of grievance.
"But... they won't behave... they're always moving around..."
"And... I'm afraid to let others see... they'll be scared..."
"So I can only wrap them up..."
"Wrap them up?"
Victor snorted coldly, his tone becoming stern.
"That is avoiding the doctor and hiding the sickness!"
"You are abusing your hair! And you are abusing yourself!"
"Look at these poor little guys, what have you strangled them into? This is a case of severe improper hair care!"
He stood up and waved a hand toward Elizabeth behind him.
"Elizabeth, prepare the anesthetic."
"Alice, go get some scissors... wait, no, scissors won't do, get a comb!"
"Also, go to the warehouse and bring that bucket of high-strength lubricant and the biological softening agent."
"Yes, Director."
Though they didn't know what the director was planning, the God-Chosen acted quickly.
"What are you... going to do?"
The Medusa felt the change in the atmosphere and instinctively tried to back away.
"What am I doing?"
Victor pulled on rubber gloves, his face wearing that confident, design-oriented smile unique to a master stylist.
He pressed down on the Medusa's shoulders, forcing her into a specially made swivel chair.
"Giving you a makeover, of course."
"As a doctor who pursues perfection, I absolutely will not allow my patient to walk out the door with a head full of messy grass... or messy snakes."
"Bear with it; there might be a bit of tugging on the scalp."
With that.
Victor didn't hesitate for a second. He reached out and grabbed the grey headscarf.
He ripped it away!
Riiiip!
The sound of tearing fabric rang out.
The headscarf that had bound the Medusa for decades turned into fragments in that instant.
"Hiss hiss hiss—!!!"
The moment they saw the light of day again.
The snakes on her head seemed to explode, letting out a synchronized, scalp-numbing hiss.
The visual impact was intense.
Dozens of venomous snakes of various colors were tangled together like a writhing, multicolored nightmare.
They opened their mouths, flicking their tongues, trying to attack the human who dared to expose them to the air.
"Quiet!"
Victor barked the command, simultaneously releasing his 【Doctor's Pressure】.
That pressure, mixed with the scent of disinfectant and a top-tier predator, instantly suppressed the restless little things.
The group of snakes froze.
Though they were fierce, they were also afraid of death.
The aura radiating from the man before them was more terrifying than any natural enemy they had ever encountered.
"That's more like it."
Victor nodded in satisfaction.
He picked up the bucket of high-strength lubricant and poured half of it directly onto the Medusa's head.
The slippery liquid flowed down the snake scales, greatly reducing friction.
"Alice, hold her head; don't let her move."
"Elizabeth, you're responsible for feeding these little snakes the anesthetic. Keep them honest."
Victor was like a general commanding a battlefield.
"Mia... you go watch the door. Don't let anyone in to disturb my creation."
After arranging everything.
Victor picked up a massive comb forged from refined steel.
"Now, let's untangle this damned dead knot."
He took a deep breath and began his great "hairdressing" project.
It was a massive undertaking.
More complex than defusing a bomb.
Every single snake was a strand of hair with a life and a temper of its own.
Victor needed patience, separating and smoothing them out bit by bit.
"This one is a king ratsnake... how did it get knotted with a cobra?"
"This is a red-banded snake... stop biting! If you bite again, I'm pulling your fangs!"
"Whose tail is this? How did it get stuffed into someone else's mouth? Spit it out!"
Victor muttered to himself as he combed.
His movements were rough, yet they possessed a strange rhythm.
Under the dual effects of the lubricant and the anesthetic.
The previously hopelessly tangled venomous snakes began to grow soft and smooth.
They stopped struggling, instead squinting their eyes comfortably, allowing Victor to rub and shape them as he pleased.
The Medusa sat in the chair, her entire body stiff.
She kept her eyes tightly shut, her hands clutching her clothes.
She felt a pair of large, warm hands busy atop her head.
That constant, tightening pressure that had accompanied her for years was slowly vanishing.
Her scalp... was loose.
The sensation of blood flowing back into her brain made her let out a comfortable moan.
"Mnn..."
"Don't make weird noises; I'm not done yet."
Victor wiped the sweat from his forehead.
After half an hour of struggle, that ball of chaos was finally combed out by him.
All the snake-hairs hung down smoothly, no longer tangled or knotted.
But there was still one problem.
Because these snakes had been compressed for so long, their bodies were all wavy and crooked, looking like over-boiled instant noodles. They weren't straight at all.
"This is just too unappealing."
Victor looked at the head of curly snake-hair and shook his head.
This did not meet his aesthetic standards.
"Since I'm doing this, I must do it to the best of my ability."
He turned and took out the bottle of biological softening agent.
This was a special potion that could temporarily cause biological tissue to lose its rigidity, making it as soft as noodles.
"Next is the key step."
Victor picked up two red-hot irons—no, they were specially made "high-temperature styling plates."
He looked at the Medusa, his face displaying that enthusiastic smile a stylist uses when trying to trick a customer into buying a membership card.
"Miss, since the hair is combed out."
"Why don't we... do a straightening while we're at it?"
"Trust me."
"Ionic straightening is the only true standard for testing a goddess."
Sizzle—!!!
Before the Medusa could even react.
The two scorching styling plates had already clamped onto her poor little snakes.
A puff of white smoke rose.
The air was filled with a faint scent of...
Grilled meat?
Rate on N.U.
