Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 164 You are not a machine spirit at all!
Burn the pollution?
That was great! Hughes' eyes lit up. He had been thinking about how to solve the fuel problem.

The original pirates could no longer be relied upon. They had inexplicably lost contact with Castel recently, and there was no follow-up on the agreement to send someone to pick up the goods a few days ago. Jeremiah had gone to the North again, so the coal that had been ordered previously was naturally gone.

Without imported coal, and the steel mills being big coal consumers, other steam engines could only burn charcoal or even firewood for a while, which was quite stretched.

This time, Hughes actually came here to learn about the progress of the research on physical pollution. With more and more steam plants, this project needs to be accelerated.

However, pollution was still a bit dangerous. Zeus evacuated the crowd and called all the banshees in the experimental field over before starting to transport the pollution.

Soon, some banshees came over holding several huge jars. Zeus and the others stepped back, allowing the banshees to move forward and operate.

The rest of the people, whether Gaia or Chloe, stepped back and made way.

Although Chloe is also a superhuman, she does not have many ways to deal with physical pollution. It is better to say that most superhumans are quite afraid of pollution. For a thousand years, superhumans have tried to stay away from the sea because they do not want to be exposed to pollution.

The flesh and blood magic of the banshees is indeed quite powerful. It can not only defend, but also adapt to the environment and prevent pollution. Chloe is full of envy.

The banshees gathered in front of the steam engine, but did not move closer. Instead, they handed the jar filled with pollution to Monica - she had just successfully communicated with the machine spirit, and now she was needed to let the machine spirit control the pollution.

If not controlled, these pollutants will escape from the boiler.

Monica took the can and approached the boiler room with a serious face. She placed her hand on the furnace wall, closed her eyes and concentrated on communicating with the machine spirit.

Xius whispered to Chloe, "Shouldn't you be reading something at this time?"

"What do I need to read?" Chloe glanced over.

"It's that prayer just now. It sounds quite touching."

Chloe shook her head. "Do you think these are all made up? The Mechanical Temple has extremely strict requirements for praying to machines. For example, the prayer I chanted earlier was for steam engines that were 'assembled but not put into use.' Regular maintenance follows a different process. They even have requirements for the coal they burn - steam shall not be desecrated by strange fire? Have you heard of this saying?"

"Shall steam be profaned by common fire?"

Zeus repeated it. This sentence did give him a strange feeling. The Mechanical Temple refused to use "ordinary fire", so what did they use as fuel?
It can't be pollution.

"Furthermore, the Mechanical Temple strictly prohibits any form of improvement to the machines, even improving the operating procedures. They have always used machines according to an extremely long and complicated set of procedures, many of which are stupid even to be called a religion."

“The advantage is that as long as the process is strictly followed, nothing can go wrong.”

Zeus frowned. This way of using machines made him feel uncomfortable. Machines were created to improve efficiency, but the idea of the Mechanical Temple was completely contrary to efficiency.

"Look, Monica dumped the pollution in!"

Chloe grabbed Hughes' sleeve and spoke excitedly, bringing him back to reality.

Monica grabbed the can with four hands, opened the boiler door with two hands, and then poured it in. The pollution rushed into the boiler like swimming fish, and Hughes was stunned.

Is this what it looks like when pollution enters the boiler?

He vaguely remembered that when he was experimenting with Ash before, the pollution was extremely resistant to approaching flames, and would struggle madly if it got even slightly closer.

Ash even had to hold the pollution tightly in his hand and put his hand into the fire to barely control it from burning. And now.
Monica's dumping process was extremely smooth. The pollution that had been struggling before was now extremely docile. It just obediently entered the boiler and was wrapped in the scorching flames.

"It's so effective!?"

Chloe and Zeus turned their heads and looked at each other, seeing surprise in each other's eyes. They had conducted experiments on pollution combustion more than once, and all of them failed because the pollution struggled too violently.

The two had originally expected that the machine spirit would help watch over the furnace and forcibly confine the pollution in the boiler.

"Is this normal?" Xius scratched his head and looked at Chloe. "Do you have any way to control the pollution?"

"If we had this method, we would have used it long ago. Why would we bother summoning the evil god?" Chloe said absentmindedly. "This is amazing. The machine spirit can actually control pollution. I thought only the evil god could do that."

Xius raised an eyebrow: "Can the evil god control pollution?"

"It's not really control. It's mainly because the evil god will actively attract the pollution to it. Otherwise, why do you think we summon the evil god? It's to absorb the pollution from our bodies!"

Xiu Si rubbed his chin. These statements sounded fine, but he always felt weird.
Monica poured out a whole can of pollution and closed the furnace door. The piston of the steam engine accelerated its movement, and the flywheel was driven so fast that the output far exceeded that of burning wood and coal.

"It worked, it really worked, my God, using pollution as fuel." Chloe pulled her hair and looked at the boiler in disbelief.

The other banshees were also filled with surprise, talking around the boiler. Monica even put her hands on her waist, folded her four arms in front of her chest, and looked very smug. Gaia behind her clapped her hands until they turned red, her face full of excitement.

Hughes was dazed. Was the pollution-burning solution truly a success? Was the fuel problem that had plagued him for so long actually solved? He felt a bit surreal.

And there's always this indescribable feeling, as if something is wrong.

Where could it be? Hughes couldn't figure it out, so he tugged at his collar and suddenly had some inspiration.

Why not ask the Machine Spirit?
He had already communicated with this machine spirit, and now it was in an active state, so there would be no obstacles in communication.

Zeus walked forward and tried to greet the soul in the steel in front of him.

"Ah Nao?"

He tentatively said that he knew during their last communication that the machine spirit did not like the name "Anuo", but it did not object vehemently. It seemed to know that this was the name given to it by its creator.

Therefore, Hughes still chose this word to greet it.

But the response from his heart was a hot, intense, yet unfamiliar presence. Zeus could feel its friendliness and enthusiasm, but he could not feel the familiarity he once had.

Zeus' pupils shrank instantly, and he slowly raised his head and looked at the huge machine that was roaring and roaring in front of him.

"You, you are not a bad guy!!"

"Who are you!?"

(End of this chapter)