Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 64 Cognitive Interference
"Has the Lord not come out yet?"

Connor sighed. "Not yet, Mr. Alexi. You must be exhausted lately. You should take a rest."

"I'm fine, it's okay." Alexei waved his hand and sat down in the armchair.

Connor glanced at the closed door of the study and shook his head.

In the study room.

The house, which was once barely tidy, is now in a terrible mess.

The ground was littered with various manuscripts, spread out everywhere.

The manuscripts contain all kinds of content, including chemical reaction formulas, three-view drawings of parts, and maps.

A notebook was spread out on the table, filled with handwriting. The first half was relatively neat, but the handwriting in the back became increasingly messy.

Later on, large areas of smudges and stains appeared on the text of the notes, and even the content of the text began to contradict itself, becoming gradually difficult to recognize.

And on the last page, a line of unusually neat handwriting appeared on it.

“Science no longer exists.”

Next to the table was an armchair, where Hughes sat with his head bowed, without thinking, moving, or speaking.
No breathing.

Somewhere, in an ancient, desolate and magnificent palace.

A long table was placed in the middle of the hall, with several people sitting on both sides. They quietly maintained their postures, motionless, like puppets.

On the huge golden throne, a figure whose face could not be seen clearly slowly raised his head.

Beside the long table, a thin and handsome young man slowly closed his eyes, his expression becoming dull.

Hughes sat on the golden throne, tapping his fingers on the table.

He didn't say anything, but closed his eyes, as if recalling something.

"The memory is intact, with no trace of distortion or deletion."

"I'm already here, so it shouldn't be some kind of cognitive pollution."

"Damn it, cognitive contamination! I should have noticed something was wrong long ago. Since knowing something can be contaminated, then subjective cognition actually has some kind of power."

"This power actually affects reality in reverse!"

"I thought there was something wrong with me, but it turns out that it's the world itself that's wrong. My subjective perception can affect the material world. This is unimaginable."

On the blue planet where Zeus comes from, the laws of physics are absolute, but here, she has become a little girl who can be dressed up by anyone.

"No, that's not right. If something a few craftsmen casually invented could actually change the properties of matter, then this world would have been in chaos long ago. I wouldn't have been unable to discover it after so many times."

"This kind of 'perception affecting reality' must follow certain rules and won't happen randomly!"

"And if it follows certain laws, then science still exists!"

Science is a methodology, which is to observe the world, understand the world, and find the laws of the world.

It’s just that the laws of this world are a little strange, not that they don’t exist!

For example, the double-slit interference experiment is also an extremely bizarre phenomenon.

If we can understand, observe, and find usable laws, then science can be rebuilt from the ruins once again.

Just to recognize the world again.

Hughes felt much more energetic. Ever since the soap and nitroglycerin became strange, his previous worldview had been shattered.

He had originally thought this was an ordinary fantasy world, at most about to undergo an industrial revolution and with some supernatural powers. Later, as he gradually discovered the strangeness of the supernatural and the existence of pollution, he only had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

But this time he was really shocked. He was an engineer in his previous life, and science and materialism were deeply engraved in his soul. The fact that science no longer existed almost caused his spiritual faith to collapse.

After the fear and confusion dissipated, they turned into great curiosity and motivation. He is now very interested in this world.

"Individual cognition can interfere with the real world, causing physical properties to change. This strange phenomenon should be called 'cognitive interference'."

"Alexei was also quite shocked by this. I haven't seen anything like this in my previous advents, which means this kind of [cognitive interference] should be extremely rare."

"Soap and nitroglycerin were both caused by [cognitive interference] by craftsmen, not by transcendents. This is interesting. Can anyone cause [cognitive interference]?"

"The only unique point I can think of is that both are new technologies, or at least new technologies that have never appeared in this world."

"Will new technology cause [cognitive interference]!?"

Xiu Si was shocked.

Like a flash of lightning passing through his mind, he suddenly understood many things.

Countless tiny clues came together in my mind to form a huge puzzle.

"The signs of industrialization have appeared for over a thousand years, but there has been no progress. Could it be because of [cognitive interference]?"

"The major powers are actually manipulating the emergence of new technologies!? To prevent [cognitive interference]!?"

"[Cognitive Interference] will definitely cause extremely serious consequences. Otherwise, no force would be willing to give up this ability that is close to imaginary creation."

"No wonder the world keeps stagnating. Could this be related to the church's failure to clean up the pollution in the ocean?"

Speaking of the church, Zeus suddenly turned his head and looked at a body beside the long table.

He was a malnourished boy wearing dirty clothes with a big hole in his chest.

The worker Xiusi who was killed in the previous life.

"In my previous life, I told the other workers a lot of random stories, which included a lot of scientific concepts that I deliberately mixed in. I wanted to use this method to slowly educate them about science."

"But the church people came and killed me immediately. Now think about it..."

"Could it be that I triggered [Cognitive Interference]?"

Everything connected, and now thinking back to what the priest had said, Hughes heard something else.

"He called me a lackey of the evil god. Are cultists the only ones in this world who would actively trigger [Cognitive Interference]?"

"No, I know too little about [Cognitive Interference]. I'd better go back and try it out. If I could really harness this magical ability, I could create anything I wanted. There must be some limitations that I'm not aware of yet."

Zeus' heart was burning with excitement. This power was too bizarre and too interesting. He couldn't wait to study and explore it carefully.

Turning his eyes, Zeus looked at the thin noble young man again.

Lord Xius raised his head, his dull expression gradually became lively, and he smiled playfully.

Everything went dark before his eyes, and the soul on the throne descended into the body again. Zeus felt himself being pulled out of here.

The hall fell silent.

after awhile--

The worker, Hughes, slowly raised his head.

He looked at the throne, then turned to look at the noble Hughes with a thoughtful look.

(End of this chapter)