Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 83 The World is Punishing

The banshees stepped back to make room for her, and the banshee stood there timidly.

"My Lord, I am Una."

Xiu Si frowned and recalled, as if he had some impression of the first time cognitive interference occurred a few days ago.

This banshee seemed to have very bad luck. The pollution that appeared out of nowhere just happened to appear on top of her head, burying her completely. It was her teammates in the same group who dug her out.

What did she discover?
Under Hughes's encouraging gaze, Una spoke softly while recalling:

"When I was in the Abyss, I was attacked by monsters there. It took a long time to get help from Lord Ash. I almost died. I have a deep impression of the pollution."

"Later, when Monica was eroded by pollution, I also remembered that pollution. It was exactly the same as the pollution in the deep sea."

“But later.”

She frowned.

"During the cognitive interference, I was hit by the pollution. It took me a long time to get out. At that time, I felt that this kind of pollution felt strange."

"strange?"

"Yes, it seems to be somewhat different from the pollution in the deep sea. It looks very similar, but it's actually not the same thing."

"Just like salt and sugar, they are both condiments, but completely different."

Xius took a breath and said, "Why didn't you report this?"

Una shook her head. "I'm not entirely sure, because they look so similar. They're all black worms, and their reactions to the outside world are the same. I thought the difference was because they were in the sea before and are now on land."

Xius understood what she meant. Una did have a very different subjective perception of them, but there was no difference between the two types of pollution no matter how you looked at them.

Just like salt and sugar, it is difficult to tell the difference with just the eyes, you have to taste them to know the difference.

"Uh, didn't you try touching it again?"

“It’s not a good feeling to be surrounded by pollution.”

Una's face darkened visibly, the corners of her mouth twitched, and she spoke in a low voice.

Hughes shuddered as he thought of the black pollution that kept wriggling like thousands of worms.

Fortunately, he purified quickly enough and the pollution was cleaned up as soon as it appeared, otherwise these things would continue to appear in his body.
Xius's face also darkened.

"Okay, I know about this. Has anyone else found anything?"

The banshees looked at each other and shook their heads.

"In other words, we may have triggered the onset of pollution for another reason. We don't yet know what that reason is. What we do know is that, unlike cognitive interference, it doesn't cause a random outpouring of pollution. Instead, it constantly creates new pollution within the body, in large quantities and for a long time."

Although the amount of pollution caused by cognitive interference is also huge, it is basically only one wave. As long as you are not too unlucky and are buried alive like Una, you can still be saved.

But the pollution that happened today was generated directly in his body. The amount was huge and lasted for several hours. If Zeus did not have the ability to purify himself, he would almost certainly die.

The candy I had asked for from Nora before could restrain the pollution to a certain extent, but it was almost impossible to resist this kind of long-term and large-dose infusion of pollution.

Xius sighed, his expression a little solemn.

These days, he has envisioned several ways to deal with cognitive interference. He can indeed promote the progress of science and industry, but the development of the entire civilization certainly cannot rely on him alone.

In the future, ordinary people will inevitably need to participate in scientific research. He hopes to create a system that can maintain a healthy cycle. Although cognitive interference is dangerous, it may not be unsolvable with proper protection.

But how can we avoid this kind of pollution from the inside out?

Today he made a steam engine, and the pollution came and was directly purified. Tomorrow Gaia improved the steam engine, and the pollution came, and it was directly turned into a monster eroded by pollution, just like Monica in the past. How to deal with it?

Even if it could be handled, Gaia could not sign a symbiotic contract with him. The monster was killed, but the man was gone.

How can this continue to develop? Are scientists treated as disposable?

How is that possible? Even if all the scientists devoted themselves to the cause, such a system would be difficult to maintain and would easily lead to interruptions in research and development.

Zeus smiled bitterly. If this world was really so strange, it was understandable that all the major forces had spontaneously become extremely conservative.

"I always feel that this world is severely punishing the progress of civilization."

He couldn't help but mutter to himself.

It’s like the world of immortal cultivation in novels, where the protagonist has been in seclusion for tens of thousands of years and comes out to see farmers still using oxen to plow the fields.

Or the elves in the fantasy world who live for thousands of years and have learned knowledge for thousands of years have only become more capable of fighting.

It's like a forced self-consistent worldview that seems reasonable and normal, but if you think about it carefully, you will feel an inexplicable sense of fear.

Scientific research relies on archaeology. It would be too ironic if such a thing happened here as well.

This inference was not difficult, and the surrounding banshees also thought of this.

Their faces didn't look too good either. When it came to their pursuit of science, these banshees were absolutely steadfast, even a little fanatical.

Their first contact with science was Zeus's theory of water pressure - this indeed solved the problem that had troubled them for thousands of years. No one in the tribe had ever thought about the nature of the curse from this perspective before. It is no exaggeration to say that it reshaped their worldview.

Later, Zeus proposed to sign a symbiotic contract with everyone to link everyone together, and they were also direct beneficiaries.

In the past, they had to worry about the contractors being too weak, or one party being seriously injured and causing harm to the other party. Now, the shared life pool gives them almost endless tolerance.

They are the group that has the most contact with various methods of using mind links, various industrial systems in the territory, and even the manufacture of steam engines.

The banshees themselves did not notice that they had gradually become accustomed to Zeus's logical method of "observation - thinking - induction - summary of laws - experiment and application".

Zeus just felt that communicating with these banshees was smoother, and even talking through the mind link felt a bit like chatting on WeChat, but he didn't think too much about it.

But this actually means that the three views of both sides are gradually converging, and they are gradually becoming more like Zeus. Therefore, the banshees can also empathize with Zeus' inner pain at this moment.

The atmosphere was a little heavy for a while.

Monica pushed away the nearby banshee and squeezed in front of Zeus.

The banshees looked down at her.

Zeus also raised his head and looked at the banshee in front of him with some surprise.

Monica was not very old, about the same height as Hughes, and she looked her lord straight in the eye.

"Humans are afraid of pollution, but I'm not. Humans like science, and so do I. If humans can't do it, why don't I do it?"

(End of this chapter)