Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 68 Methodology

Early in the morning, the islanders of Castell opened their doors and went out to work.

It was said that last night's hunting of wild animals yielded a lot of rewards. The lord hung the carcasses of a group of wolves on a pole for display - they were those that Zeus had Ash hunt last night.

Looking at the dead wolves, the islanders gathered together, pointed and talked, and then quickly dispersed. The factory had a fixed work time in the morning, and those who were late would be deducted from their wages.

Not long ago, most of them were fishermen and farmers, but now they all have a unified identity - the lord's employees.

The islanders here are far away from the mainland and have almost no communication with other territories. I don’t know how strange this phenomenon is.

Most of the lords of this era still made a living by collecting taxes. There was not much extra work in the territory. Even if the lords summoned people to do some projects, most of them would not receive wages, which was more like corvee labor.

Of course, the farmers also have an obligation, which is to go to the battlefield with the lord when they are not busy farming.

——During the busy farming season, the nobles would also stop fighting. No one wanted to have no harvest next year, after all, the royal family was watching covetously.

Zeus did not appoint any knights, nor did he engage in battles for the time being, but he hired a large number of people to work, a situation that was almost unique in this era.

Of course, the speed at which he consumed his wealth was also unprecedented, and the money he brought with him had basically been used up.

Corresponding to this are factories that have sprung up on the territory. Pickers go to the woods in groups to pick olives. Baskets of olives are pushed into the factory on carts, and barrels of olive oil are pulled out.

There are so many olive oil reserves recently that the price of wooden barrels has increased.

Although these illiterate islanders have no concept of economics, based on their simple ideas, a question will arise in their minds: Can so much olive oil really be used up?

After Hughes's special optimization of the factory preparation process, the efficiency was incredibly high. The craftsmen were surprised to find that although they were still using the old oil extraction method, the preparation efficiency had been greatly improved.

They even felt that their work had become easier - before, one person had to do many complicated tasks, from transporting olive oil to pressing, sweeping and collecting the oil. Now each person only needs to do one or two simple and repetitive steps, and they even have time to chat.

This is one of the biggest advantages of industrialization. The more refined the division of labor, the more conducive it is to improving overall efficiency. Having one person responsible for the entire process from start to finish is a huge waste of efficiency.

But recently, the construction of the newly built factory stopped for some reason, and the craftsmen inside were also put under unified management.

There are rumors that they are doing a good job, and the lord is considering letting them work in the new factory.

This made other islanders very envious. Most of the islanders went to night school to take literacy classes. Although not everyone could persist, recognizing words and learning broadened their horizons.

Now the islanders are eager to try out the new factory. After all, according to the lord's usual generosity, the wages will only increase, not decrease.

But they didn't know that Alexi, the clerical manager who was now in charge of all the factories, was now looking very worried.

"Lord, our factory...must we just shut down?"

"Why do you think so?"

Xius looked at the report in his hand slowly and couldn't help yawning.

He didn't sleep last night and now has dark circles under his eyes.

The symbiotic contract could heal his injuries, but it couldn't make him more energetic, so Zeus could only drink black tea desperately and force himself to deal with the matters at hand.

Why does this feel off? I worked overtime every day before I traveled through time, and I'm still working overtime every day after. So, didn't my time traveling through time mean anything?

Ugh.

Alexei coughed lightly:
"My Lord, last night's pollution was probably the result of cognitive interference. Once we start making soap and nitroglycerin, pollution will continue to occur. Besides..."

"Besides, the location where it appears is random." Xius added for him.

In front of the two men was a map of Castel with small circles drawn on it and some marks on each circle. This was the result of his and Alexi's study for half a day.

"Cognitive interference will lead to a pollution outbreak, starting from the place where the cognitive interference occurs, and then it will be a multi-point outbreak. The characteristic of the outbreak is that a large amount of physical pollution suddenly appears in the air. When these pollutions come into contact with living things, they will quickly erode them." Xiu Si thought of the contaminated wolf, which is still trapped in the cave under the manor, and a group of banshees are staring at it.

There seems to be no pattern to the locations of the outbreaks; most are not too far from the soap factories, and the specific locations are random.

Fortunately, most of the islanders lived on the northwest side of Castell, not particularly close to the soap factory, so no pollution fell into it.

"Yes, sir, so I'm afraid we'll have to close the factory."

Alexei felt a bitter taste in his mouth. These factories embodied the hard work of him and the lord. Was he just going to give up now?
Hughes handed him the notes with amusement. "Take another look at this and think about it carefully. While cognitive interference is bizarre and its consequences are difficult to predict, it's not unpredictable or uncontrollable. If it could happen so easily, the world would have been doomed long ago."

Alexi took the notes and flipped through them. It was the specific information about cognitive interference compiled by Hughes.

"I've been explaining scientific principles to you for so long, you should have a basic understanding of science."

"But you seem to have been holding the wrong view that these weird and incomprehensible things are contrary to science, but I think the opposite is true."

"Whether it's the supernatural, gods, pollution, or even idealistic things like cognitive interference, they are all part of this material world."

"As long as they are recognizable and understandable, they are just a natural phenomenon, no different from thunder and rain."

Alexei's body froze, and he looked at his lord in shock. This view was shocking, and he had never thought that these weird things could be compared with thunder and rain.

What's so scary about thunder and rain? But strange phenomena are really frightening.

As if reading his thoughts, Hughes continued, "When humans first walked the earth, wind, rain, thunder and lightning frightened them. They were unimaginable forces, impossible to resist and incomprehensible."

"Does it sound familiar?"

"Yes, that's how we evaluate cognitive interference and pollution monsters now."

"Temple, sacrifice, faith, these were born everywhere. Almost all civilizations have beliefs and myths about wind, rain, thunder and lightning."

"now what?"

"It suddenly rained today, and all you did was complain about the scholars of the Astronomical Court for their inaccurate predictions."

"Where's your fear? You must have gotten rid of it long ago."

Hugh paused, looking into his eyes:

“Fear comes from the unknown.”

Alexei's hand holding the notes trembled slightly. Everything Hughes told him were simple and plain truths, but he had never thought about it from this perspective.

Ignorance, civilization and history, with the development of the times as the axis, seemed to be strung together into a string, allowing Hughes to pick it up and show it to himself.

Hughes stood up and paced around the room, his voice rising a lot:

"Science is a way of understanding the world. We observe, summarize patterns, and use experiments to test whether our understanding is correct."

"You think cognitive interference breaks the boundary that objective facts cannot be changed by the will of the master, but in my opinion, it is just part of the rules of the world. Now that we have recognized it, we can understand, master, and utilize it."

“The fear of the weird is essentially the fear of the unknown. The more you understand, the less afraid you will be.”

“Observe – Understand – Experiment – Utilize – Master.”

“This is science—the methodology that allows us to understand the world.”

(End of this chapter)