Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

”And this kind of change does not require you to come into direct contact with the pollution for it to happen. The boundaries of pollution are very strange. Sometimes, even when there is a certain distance between you and it, it can still slowly alter you. Any means of isolation are ineffective.”

In other words, just being near pollution carries risks?

Hughes suddenly shuddered and snapped back to reality.

”Wait, what about all those Clamorers I have burning pollution?”

”Those are fine.” Chloe waved her hand.

”Did you forget? Those Clamorers were summoned using my Steel Prayer. I’m keeping an eye on them for you. All the pollution is suppressed by either the Clamorers or the Machine Souls.

Although I don’t know the exact principle behind it, as long as those two exist, the reality shifts caused by pollution can be ignored.”

Chloe’s expression became much more serious. ”In other words, they are anchor points.”

”Anchor points? I’ve heard you mention this term many times, but I still don’t quite understand. Isn’t that something only needed in the Sea of Unawareness? Why would anchor points be necessary in reality as well?”

”The Sea of Unawareness certainly requires anchor points. That world is unstable, lacking both distance and direction. If you lose your anchor point, your existence will be instantly cleansed of all consciousness by the Sea of Unawareness.

Your flesh will turn into an empty shell. You already know this. But even in reality, anchor points are needed.”

Chloe placed both hands on the railing of the second floor of the church, lowering her gaze to look at the islanders in the hall who were slowly moving toward different places of refuge.

”Anchor points in reality are there to prevent the world from shifting.”

”World shifting?” This was the first time Hughes had heard this term.

How could the world shift?

Or rather, isn’t the world itself the reference point?

Shouldn’t it be other things shifting relative to the world?

”What is your definition of cognitive interference?”

Chloe didn’t answer but instead asked Hughes a question.

”Personal cognition, personal will influencing objective reality under certain conditions, causing the material world to change according to individual will.”

Hughes suddenly realized something. ”So this is what world shifting means?”

Chloe snapped her fingers.

”Exactly. The essence of cognitive interference is that humanity pushes the world, causing it to shift from its original position.

At that moment, both the material world and individual cognition become highly unstable.

There is a theory that the world develops cracks due to shifting, and from these cracks, pollution emerges. That’s why cognitive interference leads to pollution descending.”

”As for the ’certain conditions’ you just mentioned, I can tell you, first, a will strong enough to surpass the walls of reality and touch the essence of the world.

Second, a force powerful enough to push the world into shifting.”

Looking back at the soap incident, it was because the workers firmly believed that soap was edible, it was, after all, made by their own hands using olive oil.

And many workers believed this. Their absolute number was large enough,  it was a widespread ’consensus.’

Hughes rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before suddenly asking, ”If I make the entire world firmly believe in the same thing, would it immediately become reality?”

Chloe was stunned by this bold idea. She widened her eyes, full of disbelief.

”How could that be possible? How could you make everyone in the world believe the same thing?”

”What if I managed to do it?”

Chloe fell silent. After a long while, she finally spoke in a low voice, ”Then perhaps you really could permanently shift the world... No, at that point, it wouldn’t be shifting anymore. It would be a new world built upon a new consensus.”

The two fell into silence again. After a long time, Chloe cautiously probed, ”You... you can’t actually do that, right?”

”Of course I can’t. If I could, wouldn’t that make me a god?” Hughes shrugged with amusement.

”A god?” Chloe repeated in confusion before shaking her head.

”Forget it, let’s not talk about that. I should explain anchor points to you.”

”Didn’t I just say that world shifting requires pushing the world? Well, anchor points are what stabilize the world.”

”Most anchor points are churches, shared faith, shared cognition. As long as they are properly guided, they can serve as anchor points.

Furthermore, many Church of Candlelight chapels contain protective inscriptions, which act as permanent anchor points.”

”This makes reality within churches especially stable, making cognitive interference extremely difficult.

That’s also why we frequently choose Church of Candlelight chapels as bases for our experiments, it’s much safer.”

So these Moths Chasing Fire weren’t experimenting in enemy strongholds just to provoke them, but actually out of safety concerns?

The more dangerous a place is, the safer it becomes?

Hughes’ expression turned odd.

These Moths Chasing Fire seemed insane at first glance, but when one thought about it carefully, their actions actually made quite a bit of sense.

—Although, in the secular world, trying to understand cultists was itself a clear symptom of madness.

”I remember you once said that Church of Candlelight often have facilities that dive into the Sea of Unawareness. Is this also taking advantage of the greater stability of reality there?”

”That’s right, you guessed correctly. Without the church’s protection, those Mind Speakers would have been completely erased by the Sea of Unawareness ages ago.

By the way, the Church of Candlelight’s transcendents can’t even enter the Corridor of Truth inside churches.

Reality here is so stable that their Extraordinary abilities can’t tear through it.”

Ah, thinking about it like this, Hughes could somewhat understand why the Church of Candlelight had become so completely conservative.

If stabilizing reality could prevent world shifting, then all they needed to do was build more churches.

Expand the church’s influence, close their eyes to all the chaos, and they could solve everything.

Wait, if Clamorers and Machine Souls could act as his anchor points—

Then wouldn’t I just need to fill the entire world with factories to stabilize reality itself?

Hughes’ eyes lit up.

”I feel like you’re thinking of something terrifying.” Chloe glanced at Hughes.

”Actually, the reason I told you not to worry is because of this. In the past, it was different.

But now, with so many Clamorers, your factories are essentially anchor points.

There is almost no chance of world shifting occurring on Castel Island.

While some of the strange phenomena resemble cognitive interference, the likelihood is actually quite low.”

”Are you saying that cognitive interference is basically impossible on the island?” Hughes’ eyes suddenly widened, as if he had thought of something.

”I advise you not to get any extreme ideas. I only said this place is relatively stable, not that it’s completely impossible. If pollution truly descends, it would be a huge problem.”

”No, that’s not what I meant. What I’m saying is—”

”Is it possible that the entire Castel Island has already shifted?”