Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Burning pollution?

That was great! Hughes’ eyes lit up. He had been pondering how to solve the fuel problem.

The original pirates were no longer reliable.

Recently, they had inexplicably lost contact with Castel.

The scheduled pickup from a few days ago had not materialized, and Jeremiah had gone to the Northlands, meaning the pre-ordered coal was naturally unavailable.

Without imported coal, the steel plant, which was a major coal consumer, was in trouble.

Other steam engines had to rely on charcoal or even firewood, which was far from sufficient.

Hughes had also come here to check on the progress of the research on entity pollution.

With more steam factories emerging, this project needed to be accelerated.

However, pollution was still a dangerous substance. Hughes evacuated the onlookers and called over the Sirens at the test site before beginning the transportation of the pollution.

Soon, several Sirens arrived carrying large canisters.

Hughes and the others quickly stepped back, leaving only the Sirens to operate.

Everyone else, including Gaia and Chloe, also moved back.

Although Chloe was also an Extraordinary, she had no effective means to deal with entity pollution.

In fact, most Extraordinary individuals were deeply afraid of pollution.

For a thousand years, they had avoided the sea to keep away from contamination.

The Sirens’ flesh magic was truly powerful, it provided defense, adapted to the environment, and could even block pollution. Watching this made Chloe envious.

The Sirens gathered in front of the steam engine but did not move closer.

Instead, they handed the canisters filled with pollution to Monica, she had just successfully communicated with the machine soul, and it was now up to her to have the machine soul control the pollution.

If the pollution was left unchecked, it would escape from the boiler.

Monica took the canister and solemnly approached the boiler room.

She placed her hand on the furnace wall and closed her eyes to focus on communicating with the machine soul.

Hughes whispered to Chloe, ”Shouldn’t you be chanting something at this moment?”

”Why would I need to chant?” Chloe glanced at him.

”You know, like that prayer from earlier. It sounded pretty intense.”

Chloe shook her head. ”Do you think those are made up on the spot? The Mechanical Cathedral has very strict rules for prayers to machines.”

“For example, the one I recited earlier was specifically for ’assembled but not yet operational’ steam engines. Maintenance prayers follow a different procedure, and they even have rules for burning coal, ’How can steam tolerate the profanation of mundane fire?’ Have you heard that saying?”

”How can steam tolerate the profanation of mundane fire?”

Hughes repeated the phrase. It gave him an odd feeling.

If the Mechanical Cathedral refused to use ’mundane fire,’ then what did they use for fuel?

Surely, it wasn’t pollution.

”Moreover, the Mechanical Cathedral strictly prohibits any modifications to machines, even improvements to their usage processes. They adhere to an extremely lengthy and complex operational procedure, with many steps that seem absurd even under a religious pretext.”

”The only advantage is that as long as the process is strictly followed, errors won’t occur.”

Hughes frowned. This method of using machinery made him uncomfortable.

Machines were created to improve efficiency, yet the Mechanical Cathedral’s philosophy was completely at odds with that principle.

”Look, Monica poured the pollution in!”

Chloe grabbed Hughes’ sleeve excitedly, pulling him back to reality.

Monica held the canister with four hands.

With two hands, she opened the boiler door and then poured the contents inside.

The pollution surged into the boiler like swimming fish, leaving Hughes momentarily stunned.

Was this how pollution entered the boiler?

He vaguely recalled that during his experiments with Ash, pollution strongly resisted approaching flames.

Even getting slightly closer would make it struggle violently.

Ash had to grip the pollution tightly with her hands and thrust them into the fire to barely force it to burn.

But now…

The pouring process was incredibly smooth.

The pollution, which had always struggled, was now docile, obediently entering the boiler and being engulfed by the scorching flames.

”Is this good!?”

Chloe and Hughes exchanged glances, seeing the same shock in each other’s eyes.

They had conducted numerous experiments on burning pollution, all of which failed due to the pollution’s extreme resistance.

Their original expectation was simply for the machine soul to guard the furnace, forcibly confining the pollution inside the boiler.

”Is this… normal?” Hughes scratched his head and looked at Chloe.

”Do you guys have a method to control pollution?”

”If we had such a method, we would’ve used it long ago. Why else would we go through the trouble of summoning an evil god?” Chloe said in disbelief.

”This is incredible. Can the machine soul control pollution? I thought only evil gods could do that.”

Hughes raised an eyebrow. ”Evil gods can control pollution?”

”Not exactly in control. It’s more that they attract pollution to them. Why do you think we summon evil gods? It’s to extract pollution from our bodies!”

Hughes rubbed his chin. That explanation seemed reasonable, yet something about it felt off.

Monica finished pouring an entire canister of pollution and closed the furnace door.

The pistons of the steam engine accelerated, the flywheel spun rapidly, and the output far exceeded that of burning wood or coal.

”It worked. It actually worked. My god, using pollution as fuel…” Chloe clutched her hair, staring at the boiler in disbelief.

The other Sirens were also overjoyed, discussing excitedly around the boiler.

Monica stood triumphantly, her two lower hands on her hips while her upper arms crossed over her chest.

Behind her, Gaia clapped so hard her hands turned red, her face filled with excitement.

Hughes felt dazed. Had they really just succeeded in burning pollution?

Had his long-standing fuel problem really been solved?

It all felt unreal.

And yet, there was an inexplicable feeling, something was wrong.

What was it? Hughes couldn’t figure it out. He tugged at his collar, suddenly struck by an idea.

Why not ask the machine soul?

He had already communicated with it before. Now that it was in an active state, there should be no barrier to conversation.

Hughes stepped forward and tried to greet the soul within the steel before him.

”Anou?”

He tested the name.

During their previous communication, he had learned that the machine soul disliked the name ”Anou,” but it had not vehemently objected.

It seemed to acknowledge that it was given this name by its creator.

So Hughes chose to use the same name to address it again.

But the response he felt in his mind was a burning, intense, yet unfamiliar presence.

Hughes could sense its friendliness and enthusiasm, but not the familiar feeling he once knew.

His pupils shrank instantly. He slowly raised his head, looking at the roaring, massive machine before him.

”You… you are not Anou!!”

”Who are you!?”