Chapter 123: Slushee

"Invaders?"

Hugh repeated the single sentence that professor Kain had uttered. He could see the seriousness in the professor's eyes. Most importantly, he had already heard this word before.

The emergency mission that he had gotten from the system had wanted him to eliminate the invader. He did not know that the invader had come from the outside.

"Yes, the invaders. They are an annoying little bunch."

Professor Kain seemed to have spite coming out of his mouth as he belittled the invaders. He seemed to know more about them, and it intrigued Hugh even more.

"What are they?"

Hugh wanted to know more about the invaders so that he would know what he would be dealing with. Professor Kain might even know how he would be able to defeat it.

"They are maggots, parasites the lot of them. Once one gets here, a whole colony will soon spawn."

Professor Kain shuddered at the thought. He had a lot of knowledge as a teacher of the school, so he knew exactly what he was dealing with.

"What do they look like?"

Hugh got a little bit excited and leaned in closer to hear what professor Kain would say. However, the professor seemed to pick up on this.

"Why are you so interested?"

Hugh could not say the truth. The truth would involve him telling professor Kain about his system, and that would not be a wise idea.

"I have an interest in this stuff."

Hugh tried to play it off as some kind of hobby that he had liked. He did not know if the professor would believe it, but it was the best that he could come up with at the moment.

"Can you tell me more about the invaders? What are they? What do they look like? What do they do? How do we defeat them?"

Hugh spewed out all of these questions for professor Kain to answer. He waited patiently for professor Kain to answer, and it looked like the professor would finally spill the beans.

*RING*

As professor Kain opened his mouth to say something, an alarm sounded out through the hallways of the school. This bell meant that classes had ended, and students would soon come by.

There was silence after the bell, and like a quiet tsunami, it was only the eye of the storm. After a few seconds, the doors started to rumble and students burst out of their classrooms with such vigor and life.

The students flooded the hallways and bumped through each other. Hugh was also affected by this stampede, and he was separated from the professor.

"Just kill them on site."

Hugh heard the professor's voice amongst the crowd. This warning was overpowered by the noise of the crowd, but Hugh heard it loud and clear.

Hugh wanted to find the professor, but he was nowhere to be found. Hugh was disappointed since he did not get any substantial information about the invaders.

He only knew that the invaders came from the outside and that they are very dangerous. With this lack of information, Hugh was left to stumble along the road.

He thought back to Marshal, the person that he suspected to be the invader. Everything seemed to line up in a place as he remembered how strange Marshal had acted through the day.

Now that he knew that an invader was dangerous, Hugh had more resolve to deal with it. The problem for Hugh was how he would do such a thing without even knowing what an invader looked like.

Was an invader a clone of someone? Are they a parasite that takes control of a body? Or was it something different entirely?

For now, Hugh resolved to stick near Marshal and figure out what he was. He was also worried that Marshal would cause chaos through the school, like what professor Kain had said about the invaders.

Hugh walked back to the hallways to the classroom, and he heard a shout from somewhere. Thinking about the worst-case scenario, Hugh rushed towards the scream.

As Hugh turned the corner, he suddenly saw a woman who was standing by herself. She had a strange green substance all over her body like it was splashed all over her.

Hugh was immediately alerted by this, and he approached her carefully.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

The girl finally noticed Hugh and looked at him with a frown on her face. It was clear that she was in a bad mood, and it was spilling all over her clothes.

"Marshal happened."

Hugh stopped in his tracks as he realized that this might have been Marshal's doing. He now looked at the strange green substance all over her clothes as if it was a threat.

He did not know if it was something that an invader does to a victim. He approached her quietly, making sure that he would not touch the green substance on the ground.

"Tell me everything."

The girl seemed to quickly turn from angry to sad in a split second. She started to sob and her eyes started to water. She seemed to be a complete mess.

"I did not want to go back to his place, and he just lashed out at me. He threw my green apple slushee all over me!"

Hugh heaved an internal sigh as he realized that the strange substance was just a slushee. He now approached her more quickly, but he was still careful.

"Do you know where he went?"

Hugh wanted to find Marshal as quickly as possible so that he would not affect any more people.

"Why should I care where that bastard went?!"

She now became angry again as if she was bipolar. Hugh put his hands on her shoulders and consoled her for a little bit so that she would calm down.

"Because I will make sure that he gets what he deserves."

As soon as Hugh said that, the girl stopped crying. She looked at Hugh for the first time, and she had her mouth opened like she was surprised.

"I think...he went that way."

The girl pointed towards a direction where she remembered where Marshal went. She looked at Hugh with a strange look.

As soon as Hugh revived the information, he quickly walked in the direction.

"What's your name?"

Before Hugh could get out completely, the woman stopped him in his tracks. She got ahold of Hugh's hands and did not let go of it.

"Hugh."

Hugh did not mind telling her his name. He felt a little bad that she got a drink thrown at her, and he also felt thankful that she cooperated with his questions.

"Jade."

She also introduced herself as Hugh said his name. Even though Hugh had told her his name, she still did not let go of his hands.

"Sorry, got to run."

Hugh realized that he had spent too much standing around. He needed to catch up to Marshal as soon as possible.

Hugh ran away from Jade, leaving her dripping wet with the green apple slushee running down her shirt. Hugh did not notice this, but there was now an apparent red blush on her cheeks that was not there before.

Hugh ran towards the direction where Jade had pointed. He remembered how professor Kain described the invaders, and it sent a chill down his spine. He ran even faster.

Hugh ran out of the school building as he was greeted by the morning sun. There were multitudes of students waking and loitering around.

He looked around the campus to see where Marshal had come, but he did not see him. There were way too many people on the campus.

Hugh activated his eagle eyes and used them to the best of his abilities. With his new mutated eye, he could now see the distance with much more clarity.

Hugh looked around and finally saw Marshal in the middle of a group of students. They were all laughing and having fun. It almost made it seem like Marshal was a normal guy.

Hugh ran towards him with just one thing he was focused on, making sure that Marshal does not do anything that would jeopardize other people's lives.

Hugh finally reached Marshal and his friends. He raised his hand and was about to put it in Marshal's shoulders when he turned around.

"Ahh...look who finally decided to come."

Marshal seemed to have realized that Hugh was looking for him. It even seemed like Marshal knew that Hugh would come running down the street.

"I don't know what you're doing, but you better make sure that I will be watching you."

Hugh threatened Marshal by grabbing his collar and lifting him in the air. The surrounding people stopped laughing and they all looked at Hugh.

Hugh realized that he had been too aggressive, but it was too late to notice. Marshal decided to use this opportunity in his favor.

"Wow, slow down big guy. We are all friends here. What a weird guy right?"

Marshal controlled the situation with ease and made sure that the public opinion was against Hugh.