Chapter 68 Methodology

In the morning, the islanders of Castell opened their doors and went out to work.

It was said that last night's hunting of wild animals yielded a lot of rewards. The lord hung the carcasses of a group of wolves on poles for display - they were the ones that Zeus had Ash hunt last night.

Looking at the dead wolves, the islanders gathered together to point and talk, then quickly dispersed. The factory had fixed work hours in the morning, and those who were late would be deducted money.

Not long ago, most of them were fishermen and farmers, but now they all have a unified identity - the lord's employees.

The islanders here are far away from the mainland and have almost no communication with other territories. I don’t know how strange this is.

Most of the lords of this era still made a living by collecting taxes, and there was not much extra work in the territory. Even if the lord summoned people to do some projects, most of them could not be paid, and it was more like corvée labor.

Of course, the farmers also have an obligation, which is to go to the battlefield with the lord when they are not busy farming.

——During the busy farming season, the nobles would also stop fighting. No one wanted to have no harvest next year, after all, the royal family was watching covetously.

Zeus did not appoint any knights, nor did he engage in battle for the time being, but he did employ a large number of his subjects to do work, a situation that was almost unique in this era.

Of course, the speed at which he consumed his wealth was also unprecedented, and the money he brought with him had basically been used up.

Corresponding to this are factories springing up in the territory. Pickers go to the woods in groups to pick olives. Baskets of olives are pushed into the factories on carts, and barrels of olive oil are pulled out.

There is so much olive oil in stock recently that the price of wooden barrels has increased.

Although these illiterate islanders have no concept of economics, based on their simple ideas, a question will arise in their minds: Can so much olive oil really be used up?

After Hughes specially optimized the factory preparation process, the efficiency was incredibly high. The craftsmen were surprised to find that although they were still using the old oil extraction method, the preparation efficiency had been greatly improved.

They even felt that their jobs had become easier - before, one person had to do many complicated tasks, from transporting olive oil to pressing and sweeping the materials to collect the oil. Now each person only needs to do one or two simple and repetitive steps, and they even have time to chat.

This is one of the biggest advantages of industrialization. The more refined the division of labor, the more conducive it is to improving overall efficiency. It is a huge waste of efficiency for one person to be responsible for the entire process from start to finish.

But recently, the construction of the newly built factory stopped for some reason, and the craftsmen inside were also put under unified management.

There was a rumor that they were doing a good job, and the lord was considering letting them work in the new factory.

This made other islanders very envious. Most of the islanders went to night school to take literacy classes. Although not everyone could persist, recognizing words and learning broadened their horizons.

Now the islanders are eager to try out the new factory. After all, according to the lord's usual generosity, the wages will only increase, not decrease.

But they didn't know that Alexei, the clerical manager who was now in charge of all the factories, was now looking very worried.

"My Lord, do we have to shut down our factory?"

"Why do you think so?"

Xius looked at the report in his hand slowly and couldn't help yawning.

He didn't sleep last night and now has dark circles under his eyes.

The symbiotic contract could heal his injuries but it couldn't make him more energetic, so Zeus could only drink black tea desperately and force himself to deal with the matters at hand.

Why do I feel something is wrong? I worked overtime every day before I traveled through time, and I still work overtime every day after I traveled through time. Doesn’t that mean I traveled through time in vain?

well.

Alexi coughed lightly and said, "My Lord, the pollution last night should be the result of cognitive interference. Once we start making soap and nitroglycerin, pollution will continue to appear. Besides..."

"Besides, the location where it appears is random." Xius added for him.

In front of the two men was a map of Castel with small circles drawn on it and some marks on each circle. This was the result of his and Alexei's research for half a day.

"Cognitive interference will cause pollution outbreaks, starting from the place where cognitive interference occurs, and then multiple outbreaks. The characteristic of the outbreak is that a large amount of physical pollution suddenly appears in the air. When this pollution hits a living thing, it will quickly erode it."

Hughes thought of the polluted wolf, which was still imprisoned in the cave under the manor, and a group of banshees were staring at it.

There seems to be no pattern to the locations of the outbreaks. Most of them are not too far from the soap factories, and the specific locations are random.

Fortunately, most of the islanders lived on the northwest side of Castres, not particularly close to the soap factory, and no pollution fell into it.

"Yes, sir, so I'm afraid we will have to shut down the factory."

Alexei felt a bitter taste in his mouth. These factories were the result of his and the Lord's hard work. Now he had to give up? Hughes handed him the notebook with a smile: "Take a look and think about it carefully. Although cognitive interference is weird and its results are hard to predict, it is not impossible to predict and control. If it could happen casually, the world would have been doomed long ago."

Alexei took the notes and flipped through them. It was the specific information about cognitive interference compiled by Hughes.

"I have been explaining scientific principles to you for so long, you should have a basic understanding of science now."

"But you seem to have been holding a wrong view that these weird and incomprehensible things are contrary to science, but I think it's just the opposite."

"Whether it's the supernatural, gods, pollution, or idealistic things like cognitive interference, they are all part of this material world."

"As long as they are recognizable and understandable, they are just a natural phenomenon, no different from thunder and rain."

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Alexei's body froze and he looked at his lord in shock. This view was shocking. He had never thought that these strange things could be compared with thunder and rain.

What's so scary about thunder and rain? But strange phenomena are really frightening.

As if he could read his mind, Hughes continued, "When humans first walked on the earth, wind, rain, thunder and lightning all frightened them. They were unimaginable forces that could not be resisted or understood."

"Does it sound familiar to you?"

"Yes, that's how we evaluate cognitive interference and pollution monsters now."

"Temples, sacrifices, beliefs, these were born everywhere. Almost all civilizations have beliefs and myths about wind, rain, thunder and lightning."

"And now?"

"It suddenly rained today, and you only complained that the scholars of the Astronomical Court made inaccurate predictions."

"Where's your fear? You must have gotten rid of it a long time ago."

Hugh paused and looked into his eyes:

“Fear comes from the unknown.”

Alexei's hands were shaking slightly as he held the notebook. All that Hughes had told him were simple and plain truths, but he had never thought about it from this perspective.

Ignorance, civilization and history, with the development of the times as the axis, seemed to be strung together into a string, allowing Hughes to pick it up and show it to himself.

Hughes stood up and paced around the room, his voice rising a lot:

“Science is a way of understanding the world. We observe, summarize laws, and use experiments to test whether our understanding is correct.”

"You think cognitive interference breaks through the boundary that objective facts cannot be changed by the will of the master, but in my opinion, this is just part of the rules of the world. Now that we have recognized it, we can understand, master and use it."

“Fear of the weird is essentially fear of the unknown. The more you understand, the less afraid you will be.”

“Observe – Understand – Experiment – ​​Utilize – Control.”

“That’s what science is—the methodology that allows us to understand the world.”

(End of this chapter)