Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

“How’s it going?” Hughes asked grimly.

“We’ve tried coyote, rabbit, shark, snake, and Devil Fish. All of them mutated.” Nini flipped through the notebook in her hand. “We didn’t prepare many test animals, so that’s all for now. We plan to catch some birds and insects later and see what happens.”

Hughes stared at the coyote before him—larger than a horse—with dark circles under his eyes and a grave expression on his face.

Electricity in this world truly had a problem!

He had originally thought it was just a misunderstanding—that the people of this world didn’t understand electricity well enough, hence all the confusion.

But it turned out he was the shallow one. The previous researchers were fine; it was the world itself that was wrong.

Hughes was not unfamiliar with electricity. He hadn’t idly played around with it; after testing a few basic properties, he stopped.

No one had been electrocuted during the earlier experiments, so the hidden problem with electricity went unnoticed.

This time, Hughes hurriedly conducted several experiments. He made a simple chemical battery and carried out a series of tests.

He hadn’t tested much yet, but he already had some preliminary conclusions—electricity in this world was not much different from that of Blue Star in physical properties. It could still generate heat through resistance, electrolyze water, and so on.

However, creatures that were electrocuted would turn into evil entities.

Hughes felt like he was going insane. How could the directed movement of charged particles alter the form of life itself?

He ran a few basic tests on those evil entities and even brought over Ash’s pet wolf for comparison. The results were largely similar.

Their bodies grew larger, their appearance mutated to a degree, and they could both contact and even draw near to Entity Pollution.

That matched the traits of lifeforms that had survived contamination—but it completely violated Hughes’s understanding of science.

Right now, Hughes felt as though “physics no longer existed.”

Electricity wasn’t something limited to laboratories—living beings naturally had bioelectricity. The electrical signals in the nervous system were a perfect example, and there were even electric eels that generated it.

Hmm, though whether electric eels existed in this world was another matter entirely.

Hughes couldn’t quite explain why bioelectricity didn’t cause animals to mutate into evil entities, though he had some vague guesses.

These experimental animals didn’t immediately mutate the moment they were shocked.

For example, larger creatures like the coyote required longer exposure to electricity than smaller ones.

The shark had been electrocuted together with the Devil Fish in the same tank. The Devil Fish mutated quickly, but the shark took much longer.

Later, when the battery’s reaction was nearly spent and the current weakened, the rate of mutation also slowed. The coyote didn’t even fully mutate after one round of electrocution—it only completed its change after Hughes poured more acid into the reaction chamber to recharge the battery.

All in all, a simple conclusion could be drawn—different animals required different amounts of electrical energy to mutate, and it was directly proportional to body size.

In other words, the larger the creature, the more electricity it required for mutation.

Somehow, that even faintly aligned with the law of conservation of energy.

Hughes felt exhausted. This world was absurd beyond measure.

It was one thing for living beings to be corrupted by pollution—but to be corrupted by electricity too? Could electricity and pollution be connected somehow?

More experiments would be needed to confirm that, but based on the current findings, electricity wasn’t unusable—it was simply extremely dangerous.

There was no such thing anymore as “I’ll just touch it and see if it’s charged.” Anyone who did that would instantly turn into a monster.

That trait—

Hughes froze. Why did that feel oddly familiar?

The way electricity behaved in this world… why did it remind him of radiation?

Excessive exposure to radiation also caused mutations. Uranium was both dangerous and highly valuable.

If electricity in this world was as hazardous as radiation on Blue Star, then did this world also possess radioactive materials? And just how terrifying would those be?

Hughes pondered for a long time before sighing. If Blue Star could harness radiation, then Castel could surely harness electricity. No matter how dangerous a thing was, once its laws were understood, it could be made useful.

However, with such perilous traits—coupled with the interference of cognition—pursuing knowledge in this world was almost suicidally dangerous.

Hughes thought that Moths Chasing Fire truly lived up to their reputation as the number-one cultists.

“From now on, all experiments related to electricity must go through my approval. Only after full protection and contingency plans are in place can they proceed. Thankfully, Moths Chasing Fire understood how dangerous electricity was, otherwise things would’ve gone terribly wrong.”

Originally, radio equipment was quite safe. It operated at low voltage and posed little danger to humans—but now, who could say?

One might hear something they shouldn’t—or get electrocuted and die on the spot. Future signal operators might face the highest possible danger rating.

Even so, Hughes clenched his teeth and decided to continue the research. Electricity’s place in the technological tree was simply too vital. Moreover—

A thought flashed through his mind—could the Mechanical Sanctum have found a way to prevent electricity from spawning “evil entities”?

Once he reached Rhine, he must have a proper talk with them. Back then, the Mechanics’ Association had been willing to share knowledge—they should be open-minded too, right?

And if they weren’t, that was fine. Castel’s weapons were built precisely to make others “friendly.” Surely, there was always something to discuss.

Besides, Hughes had a faint feeling that the phenomenon of creatures mutating under electricity might not be entirely useless.

Back in the day, the Pirate King had caused endless trouble for Castel, yet now he powered the entire island. Perhaps, someday, evil entities could be integrated into the power grid as well.

Evil entities produced pollution; pollution powered steam engines; steam engines generated electricity; electricity created more evil entities— it all sounded suspiciously like a perpetual motion machine.

Sure, it might cost a few coyotes along the way… hmm, could the future of technology depend on livestock farming?

Well, at least that was better than advancing science through archaeology.

It was all still far off, though. For now, Hughes sternly warned Nini several times. Still uneasy, he sent a new announcement through the Mind Link’s main channel, tagging everyone.

The first batch of Banshees heading north for support was about to depart, and Hughes needed to inform them before they left.

Nini was leading the team herself. She had arranged for the Banshees to take turns rotating to the Northlands. That way, although the total number stationed there at once was limited, there would always be some Banshees available for battle.

According to Hughes’s calculations, three Banshees working in coordination could alter the course of a battle— as long as the battlefield wasn’t too far from a river.

That, however, didn’t worry Hughes much.

The Resistance Army’s forest strongholds were all within the river’s range. It wasn’t as if they were going to fight inside a city, right?