Chapter 196: Island-wide Refuge

Ding-ding-ding-ding

A bell rang in the sky above Castel, and the islanders raised their heads and looked into the distance at the towering building in the center of the island.

That was Castres Cathedral, designed by Hughes himself. The main building was a huge square castle with huge towers at the four corners.

There is a lookout on the top of the tower. Unlike other fortresses of this era, the tower designed by Hughes is almost completely enclosed, leaving only some narrow shooting holes.

On top of the tower are several empty platforms. Due to the tight schedule, construction will not continue here for the time being. Some anti-aircraft firepower may be deployed in the future - although the war in this world does not currently require air defense.

Since it was empty anyway, Zeus built a bell tower so that he could ring the bell to convey messages to the people on the island.

Castres is not very big, and the main church is located in the center. Once the bell rings, it can be heard almost everywhere on the island.

According to Zeus's expectation, if the war situation is extremely unfavorable, people may all be forced to enter the cathedral for defense in the future. This is the largest building on the entire island, with more than ten floors from the ground to the underground. The central furnace will continuously provide protective inscriptions and steam power, and basic living and industrial production lines are all here.

This is Castel's last line of defense and a sanctuary that will never fall.

Today, the big bell in the dome bell tower of Castres Cathedral was rung, and the islanders looked at each other with expressions of confusion and uneasiness on their faces.

The new monks of the Imperial Truth - of course people prefer to call them patrols - once specifically announced that ringing the big bell meant seeking refuge, calling on everyone on the island to seek refuge in the cathedral.

Fortunately, the air raid alarm did not sound at the same time, and since it was not an emergency evacuation, people were not too nervous. Under the guidance of the monks and banshees who had received the notice long ago, they slowly walked towards the church.

Under the cathedral, the central furnace, which had been running at low power to save fuel, also emitted a low humming sound underground today. The protective inscriptions engraved on the top of the underground cave in the cathedral lit up one character after another, and their full efficiency had been activated.

Hughes stood in the hall of the church, watching the monks guide the people to various rest areas.

"How are the factories doing?"

"Everything has basically stopped production. Only the steel mill is not very convenient to shut down. Currently, there are a few banshees watching over there, so there shouldn't be any trouble."

Behind Xius, Chloe stood quietly, with a hesitant expression on her face. After struggling for a while, she asked in a low voice: "Do we really need to be so careful? Maybe all this is just a coincidence. After all, the possibility of so many cognitive interferences happening at the same time is too low."

Since a large number of strange events occurred on the island at the same time, Hughes acted decisively to stop all industrial production that could be stopped and let everyone take refuge in the cathedral.

Although he didn't know what happened, based on Xius' experience, it was better to be steady at this time.

It would be a big trouble if a pollution disaster came and covered the whole island.

Moreover, whether it is the success of a scientific research project or the sudden discovery of a mine, it all looks too much like cognitive interference.

If he wanted saltpeter mines, he would find them right at the doorstep of his factory. If he wanted weapons and equipment, he would find just enough guns wrapped in oil paper.

He sealed up all these minerals and weapons. He remembered clearly the consequences of the last cognitive interference. Those delicious soaps all turned into pollution in the end.

This also made him give up the idea of ​​using cognitive interference. Otherwise, this characteristic of a wishing machine could be used to advance technology and it could be developed to whatever you want.

Hmm? Thinking about it this way, it seems that it is not impossible to use it. Maybe I can use cognitive interference to brush out some pollution, or use the enemy as the object of cognitive interference.

"Speaking of which, can cognitive interference be used against the enemy? On the battlefield, I advertise that the enemy is a paper tiger. Will the enemy really become a paper tiger made of pollution?"

Chloe's eyes lit up when she heard this. "This is a brilliant idea. Normal people would stay as far away as possible after knowing about cognitive interference, but you still want to use it. Even cultists don't dare to do that."

"Is this strange? Cognitive interference is an objective phenomenon. Why not use it if we can? As long as we isolate the pollution, cognitive interference won't do much harm."

Well, it does exist objectively, but it is caused by an individual's subjective will.

Chloe stared at Hughes for a while and sighed, "It's easy for you to say that. Indeed, as long as you are not afraid of pollution, cognitive interference is not a big deal. But this sentence itself is a false proposition. We are afraid of cognitive interference because we can't deal with pollution."

This was a little unexpected for Xiu Si. In his opinion, pollution was indeed a troublesome thing, but it was not that difficult to solve. Moreover, the Fire Moth where Chloe was working had a lot of messy connections with the Candlelight Club. How could the Candlelight Club not solve the pollution problem for so many years? "What's that expression on your face? Do you really think that pollution is so easy to solve?" Chloe said unhappily. "After the pollution appeared in the sea, all the major churches retreated one after another. The Sea God Church even perished because of it. If pollution was so easy to deal with, humans would not have hidden on the shore for more than a thousand years."

"Hidden on the shore for more than a thousand years?"

"Yes, you and the Banshee are not afraid of pollution. Now I'm afraid you don't even know the characteristics of pollution. Look, we at the Fire Moth dare to think about almost all the experiments, but has anyone applied to you for pollution-related experiments?"

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Zeus blinked, as if he had indeed not seen them apply for it. You know, Chloe even applied to blow up the volcano in the southwest to see if it could trigger a volcanic eruption. So Zeus looked at Chloe with a sincere expression of seeking advice.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you." Chloe quickly gave in. "In fact, the most troublesome thing about pollution is its [assimilation] ability."

"assimilation?"

"Yes, you have seen polluted beasts, right? They are wild beasts that have been doused in pollution. I remember Ash had a wolf."

"I've seen that wolf before. It doesn't seem to be anything special, except that it has a rather aggressive personality."

"That's because it can't talk and you don't know it, so you feel like nothing has changed. If it were a human that came into contact with the pollution, you would be able to feel it."

"You mean"

Xius had some rough guesses in his mind.

"Yes, it will turn you into a completely different person, or rather, just look like a person."

(End of this chapter)