Chapter 128: Colony

Hugh slapped his forehead as he heard Jane's elegant solution to his problem. Hugh was embarrassed to not have thought of that before.

Marshal's house would be a perfect place to create a lair. It was private, it was big, and no one would intrude on his personal stuff

Hugh felt that he had finally found the truth as to where Marshal had gone, so Hugh knew where to go. Hugh quickly ran away towards the residential area to go and find Marshal.

"Thanks!"

Before he got away, he said his thanks to Jane who had given him a new perspective on the problem. She had been the one to tell the crucial details about the invaders, so Hugh was truly grateful for her.

Hugh ran back to the shifting room and transported himself back to the housing area. There seemed to be many empty houses, and some houses had lights on.

Hugh looked at the streets on the residential area and looked for Marshal's house. He knew that his class had one block to themselves, so it was easy to find.

Hugh was also lucky as he had seen another person from his class walking down the street. As he would remember it, it seemed like this person was a friend of Marshal.

"Hey, have you seen Marshal?"

Hugh remembered Pete to be a friend to Marshal, so he would have knowledge about Marshal that not everyone would know.

"Yeah. He was in a hurry or something. He chased all of us out of his house even though it was supposed to be poker night."

Hugh got the directions for Marshal's house from Pete. It seemed that he was not the only person that thought that Marshal had become weird.

"Be careful with Marshal. He does not seem to be himself."

Peter warned Hugh since he wanted to confront Marshal. Hugh nodded to Peter and followed the directions.

It only took Hugh a few more minutes of looking as he finally found Marshal's house. He looked up and saw that the house was the same as every house on the block.

However, Hugh could feel a sinister air coming out of Marshal's house. There was not an ounce of light coming out of Marshal's house, making it seem like no one was at home.

Hugh walked up to the front door and stopped in his tracks. He did not know if he was supposed to knock or not. Even if Marshal opened the door, Hugh was sure that he would not be invited in.

Hugh had to think of another way of coming inside. Thinking up of a plan, Hugh started to walk along the perimeter of the house, looking through the windows.

Tension was in the air as Hugh felt a little bit suffocated even though he was outside. There were no lights to help him illuminate things on the inside, so he felt like he was in a horror movie.

Hugh walked to the back of the house but he still had not seen an open window. The house seemed to be impenetrable, but Hugh had to keep looking.

Just then, Hugh stepped on something that unnerved him. The grass did not seem to be very firm as he was used to.

Hugh looked down and realized that the ground was still a little bit wet. It looked as if the grass had been disturbed. If it was any other house, Hugh would have ignored it.

However, he knew that Marshak was an invader, so everything was a clue. Hugh started to dig around the grass to see if he could discover anything.

Seeing that he was on a tight schedule, Hugh did not mind getting dirty. As he dug around, he made a mess on the soil as it was not thoroughly destroyed.

*clink*

As he was digging through the soil, he suddenly made contact with a metal surface. Hugh was overjoyed as he had finally found the invader's lair.

With a little more cleaning up, he would see the metal latch that was the entrance to the lair. Hugh did not waste any more time as he opened the latch.

The first thing he saw when he opened the latch was the wooden ladder that led downstairs. The walls were covered with some sort of mysterious material as it did not seem to look like steel.

Hugh went down on the stairs and, after a little while, he reached the end of the stairs. He stepped on the hard soil and he knew that he was underground.

There was only one tunnel leading somewhere, so Hugh decided to venture out. He did not forget to look around the tunnel to see for any clues that may lead him to Marshal.

After walking down the tunnel, he was finally at the end of it. He tiptoed his last few steps there to make sure that he would not make any noises.

The room was dim, but with the help of his eagle eyes, he was able to see much clearer. He could see the minds of soil that was embedded on the walls and the ceiling.

It was about the size of basketballs and completely symmetrical. These thousands and thousands of mounds seemed to have life in it as Hugh could feel a tremendous amount of heartbeats.

Hugh was now confident that this was the invader's lair. These little mounds must have been the eggs of the invaders that would soon hatch.

"You foolish human."

In the deep darkness, Marshal suddenly came into being and surprised Hugh. There was clear hatred in his eyes as he assumed a defensive position.

Marshal was caught in a vulnerable state. He was still trying to finish his duties with the brood, but Hugh suddenly intruded in his business.

If Hugh decided to kill the brood right underneath his feet, then Marshak would not be able to stop him. Even if it was only one egg, Marshak would still be devastated nonetheless.

"Oh yeah? It was not even that hard finding this thing."

Hugh readied himself for the upcoming battle so he would be prepared. Hugh had no idea how an invader would fight, so Hugh thought that it would be a good idea to prove some answers.

"Why are you even here, invader?"

Hugh started to circle Marshal, making sure to stand alert of Marshal's every movement.

"What else is life for? Survival."

Marshal seemed to be a little bit haggard judging from his looks. His hair was disheveled, his face was a little bit jaundiced, and his clothes were a mess.

"Why come here? Surely there are other better places out there. This is a place of geniuses where anyone here could stand a chance against you."

Hugh started to prod the invader. He knew that the invader had a short temper, so he tried to push that button.

"Hehehe…you know nothing. You are but an insignificant piece of meat that tries to resist, but we will always prevail, the colony always does."

Hugh guessed that the invader had real loyalty to his colony. Judging from the thousands of eggs around him, Hugh guessed that this was the place where he would build his colony.

"How will you kill all of the geniuses above you? Although this is a small army you've got here, it won't stand a chance against the people upstairs."

Hugh was not exaggerating. There were a lot of capable people in the school, so he was confident that the invaders would not win in a full-on war.

"The colony always prevails."

Hugh realized that he would not be able to prod with this kind of questioning, so Hugh decided to change his approach.

"Yeah, you are right. The colony must be strong enough to kill everyone upstairs."

Once Hugh said some praises for the invaders, Marshal's face seemed to lighten up like he had been given the time of his life. A smile crept up on Hugh's face as he realized what he should do.

"The colony is strong! With just one kill, we can kill the humans like a tumbling domino."

Hugh finally got some piece of information out of Marshal. From his words, it seemed that the invaders can improve their strength with just one kill.

"Cool, but I can't believe that. Is it true? I want to know the marvel of your colony."

Hugh tried to be as genuine as possible. From his perspective, he had done a great job—enough for him to earn an oskar. However, Hugh could not be sure if the invader believed him.

"We are strong. With one kill, we take their body and use it to our own. We can bring out its true potential better than anybody."

Marshal seemed to be so proud of his colony that he did not realize that he had just given Hugh important information.

"Cool story man. However, I can't let that happen. I am going to have to destroy your nucleus."