Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 752 Isabella has started to use PUA on the machine soul.

Hughes was stunned. Why was this happening?

After hesitating for a moment, he still let his will continue to extend. He had come to talk to Isabella, but he hadn't met her yet.

He thought that besides the Machine Soul, Isabella was the only other person in the Forge, but Hughes' next encounter was...
"Bazaar?"

Hughes instinctively became wary. Although he had not yet encountered anything that could harm him on a soul level, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

Especially given that Bazeir harbors deep hatred for him.

But there was no hatred in Bazel's eyes when he looked over. Instead, it was more like a sigh of relief, similar to that of the machine spirit.

Now it was Hughes's turn to be confused. No, what did you all experience in the furnace?
Is this place really that scary?

Is Isabella alright?
You must understand that Hughes contacted them through his will; a spiritual connection cannot be faked.

Thinking this, Hughes saw another girl.

The girl's face was somewhat blurry. Hughes was about to call out Isabella's name when he suddenly felt something was wrong.

The empress of that empire had fiery red hair and eyes of the same color, and her entire demeanor was extremely sharp.

The girl in front of him, though her face was obscured, did not give off that feeling of a drawn sword.

On the contrary, she felt particularly lost.

It felt like being in a fog, not knowing where to go, or even whether to take a step forward—utterly lost.

Who is this?
Hughes had no recollection of it, yet he felt an inexplicable sense of closeness, a connection that came from the soul.

“That’s Lina.”

Hughes was startled and turned to look. Bazel was slowly speaking: "She is Lina's will, a fragmented will, attached to me and controlling me. She was also the one who carried out the assassination attempt in the courtroom."

Bazel's expression was complicated as he looked at the girl in front of him, the one who had ruined him.

"Why is she here?"

"After entering the furnace, the machine spirit completely severed the connection between me and Lina's original body, and this fragment of Lina was... well, refined."

Hughes glanced at Bazel and thought he was much more normal. Ironically, it was only here that he was finally free from all control and able to think according to his own will.

Unfortunately, it was too late. He was trapped in the furnace for eternity, slowly atoning for his sins.

"Where is Isabella?"

"She's deeper inside, and we usually don't dare disturb her, but judging by the time it's been, she should be coming out soon."

Hughes glanced at Bazel, who could no longer even maintain his skeletal form.

At first, he was just a skeleton, then he grew flesh and blood, and was resurrected by Isabella through a ritual. Now, Bazel has been stripped of almost all his power, leaving only his simple self.

Simply put, it means that the bones were burned to ashes.

Hughes gleaned something interesting from his tone, and after a moment's thought, he asked directly, without any politeness: "Why do I get the feeling that you're afraid of her? Aren't you a follower of Her Majesty the Queen?"

To be more precise, they are fanatical followers.

Hughes could only sigh that His Majesty was indeed very charismatic; the border count, who was appointed by the book, actually lost his life in order to resurrect her.

From this perspective, however, Bazel did succeed; the Queen truly was resurrected thanks to him. Bazel shook his head, about to say something, when suddenly he shrank back and looked into the depths of the furnace.

Hughes followed his gaze and saw a sudden burst of intense flames deep within the furnace. A figure parted the flames and stepped out.

Before the person even appeared, their voice rang out first:

"How's your learning going, you lot? Have you all understood the mechanical knowledge I explained before?"

But I am already dead.

Isabella paused, then roared, "Is death an excuse? Chloe from the Inquisition is dead and still has to work overtime, but I'm just assigning you some mechanical skills homework and you don't want to learn?"

"Besides, this is all useful knowledge!"

Hughes felt the entire furnace buzzing, and the machine spirit protested in dissatisfaction.

Isabella simply stomped her right foot, which was engulfed in flames, on the ground with a sharp sound that made the machine spirit pause.

"Why are the techniques for pleasing machine spirits useless? Just because you're a machine spirit doesn't mean you can't learn them? I'm still a mortal with flesh and blood. What did I say when I was learning machine language?"

She kicked the furnace in frustration, causing the entire furnace to let out a mournful cry.

"Give me an extra 10% output today! The stokers outside all say you're not putting in enough power. If you can overload, then overload. If there are any difficulties, try your best to overcome them."

Isabella's tone softened slightly: "Don't worry, Blood Harbor is my territory after all. I'll send you more contamination later, and if I'm lucky, I'll capture a couple of evil gods and stuff them in."

"Believe in yourself! You are a machine spirit, a soul born from steel. The theoretical limit is nothing; you can easily surpass it!"

The machine muttered a few words, but seeing the fire in her eyes growing stronger, it finally nodded reluctantly.

Isabella laughed, a very happy laugh. She was surrounded by flames, but her flowing hair and crimson eyes shone even brighter than the flames.

She grabbed the swaying Lina and, without thinking twice, stuffed the materialized knowledge into her body.

The confusion on Lina's face seemed to fade, replaced by terror.

Hughes swallowed hard and, before she could notice him, quietly retreated behind the crowd.

What did he see? Was Isabella simultaneously using PUA on the machine soul and fuel?
Everyone else tries to appease and please the machine spirit, fearing that it might refuse to work at the slightest disagreement. Even Hughes is only affected by the machine spirit's high level of affection for him.

But Isabella had already grasped the essence of PUA Machine Soul and was making grand promises about it.
Hughes felt that coming here was a mistake. Was Isabella going to be in trouble? She was doing just fine here.

After giving Lina a short while of studying, Isabella nodded in satisfaction, her gaze sweeping over and landing on Hughes, who was preparing to leave.

"Hughes! You've come to see me?"

"I'm not so keen on watching it anymore," Hughes thought to himself.

"Yes, I came here to check on you, afraid that you might be bullied."

"That's good, everyone here is quite friendly." Isabella grinned, and everyone nodded eagerly.

Hughes swallowed hard. This furnace contained machine spirits, named beings, and Bazel; it should have been extremely dangerous.

But he felt that the most dangerous person was Her Majesty the Empress.
"Ahem, let's not talk about that. How are you feeling now? Are you ready to come out?"

(End of this chapter)