"This is where you'll be staying next!" Rafael imprisoned the Geometrician governor and his two deputies deep within the satellite prison, then took out a piece of uranium ore, a clump of moon soil, and a bottle of nutrient solution and asked,
"Do you need food? Uranium, energy blocks, or nutrition for carbon-based life forms?"
The governor glanced at the 'food' in Rafael's hands, but shook his head. He dared not consume even the seemingly legitimate nutrient solution and explained that they usually relied on hibernation to solve the problem of energy consumption, which could last up to a thousand atomic hours without needing any sustenance.
Rafael didn't care and, leaving the group behind, promptly departed with his divine servants.
Once the energy life forms had left, the governor began to observe the satellite prison. He had to admit it was quite rudimentary overall. Aside from the unknown metal from which the cages were constructed, he saw no signs of technological artifacts.
The only good thing was that the space was large.
"This prison seems a bit too careless in its defenses," one of the deputies couldn't help transmitting mentally. If they had kept that piece of uranium, they could have created a miniature decay bomb by hand and blown the cage wide open.
The governor was equally puzzled. From their recent interactions, the civilization's behavior seemed oddly inconsistent—the aspects where they were backward were significantly so, yet where they were strong, there seemed to be no limit in sight.
It was true that civilizations with skewed tech trees could exhibit extreme strength in some areas while being weaker in others, but the disparity shouldn't have been this exaggerated. Moreover, the production of interstellar ships involved various aspects, and without a very powerful industrial force and technological reserve, mass-manufacturing of long-distance ships would be impossible.
"Another bunch of fools!"
Just as the governor was about to collect his thoughts, a voice suddenly rang out in their minds.
This voice was very strange—it wasn't electromagnetic waves, yet it managed to bypass mental protection and was accurately received by them.
This bizarre occurrence caused the Geometricians to radiate a faint glow of fear as they turned to realize they were not alone in the cell. There were also two other prisoners, who until then had gone completely undetected by their electromagnetic scanning.
The one who spoke was a Light being, whose body, completely still, could almost blend into the surrounding environment and even shield against electromagnetic probing. The other prisoner was curled up in a corner, soundly asleep.
Without waiting for a response, the Light being continued to mock, "Just three days ago, an idiot confined here had the same thoughts as you. And the result... Tsk, tsk, tsk."
The Light being didn't continue, but from the tone of voice, the outcome for the other party must have been quite gruesome.
The governor was intrigued by this inmate who was also lodged deep within the prison. The problem was they hadn't brought any language translating devices, making communication impossible. After some thought, the spire-like top of his head opened, and a floating holographic image projected into the void.
This was the relatively ancient but most reliable method of three-dimensional image communication!
However, this low-end method of communication was clearly disdainful to the Light being. "Which civilization do you come from? You don't even know mental communication, so how did you end up here?"
"Let's do this, I'll establish a mental communication channel. There's no need for you to keep trying in vain," the Light being said while infiltrating their consciousness with the magic web.
Unjustly scorned, the three Geometricians felt rather awkward, unable to find a reason to refute or decline without losing face, so they could only accept this unconventional method of communication.
Once the language barrier was resolved, the communication between the two sides flowed smoothly. When they learned that the other party had been defeated by the Magic Empire while leading their fleet and subsequently captured and imprisoned here, their attitude softened somewhat, and with a hint of sympathy, they cautioned,
"Don't be fooled by the prison's seemingly crude appearance, with no defenses whatsoever. In reality, there's no possibility of escape..."
"Why do you say that?" asked a surprised lieutenant.
"As far as I know, the Magic Empire has mastered a very powerful technology that allows them to infuse a special energy into microscopic elements, thereby achieving absolute control over anything. That means the entire satellite is under their control. The lack of defenses is simply because they are unnecessary!" explained the Rafael, half-truthfully.
As they spoke, the ground began to shake violently, or more accurately, the entire planet was quaking.
The Rafael, unperturbed, assured the assembled Geometricians not to panic. It was just routine, after all; every three hours, the location of all the cells would change randomly, meaning no one could be certain of their exact location on the moon.
After that particular shift in position had ended, the Rafael spoke up again, "If I'm not mistaken, you must have also received the message that this star domain possesses a special energy source, and that's why you hurried here, right?"
This...The Governor, quickly picking up on the term, hastened to ask if the Rafael had had a similar experience.
The Rafael nodded and then helplessly shook his head. "Such messages have actually spread to other galaxies in this universe as well. I suspect this is all a trap, or rather, the message was deliberately released as bait!"
"Exactly, like fishing. A star system that appears unguarded yet possesses a special energy source is like bait on a hook, dangling in the corners of various galaxies, quietly waiting for the big fish to bite..." At this point, the Rafael sighed. "I call it a Fisher Civilization!"
The concept of fishing was somewhat alien to the Geometricians, but with explanations from the Rafael, they soon grasped its meaning.
"But why go through all that trouble?" the Governor asked, puzzled. With the level of technology demonstrated by the Magic Empire, launching an invasion and occupying the entire galaxy seemed like a simple task.
"Nobody knows why. Perhaps they have very high moral standards and thus don't like initiating invasions..." The Rafael shrugged, conjecturing.
Suddenly, the Geometricians were surrounded by glimmering lights of various colors. To spread rumors, set traps, lure the greedy into invading, and then counter-invade, extort—it seemed hard to equate these tactics with a so-called high-morality civilization.
With the Rafael's reminder, the Governor finally realized something was amiss.
Although he had ordered his fleet to attack first, before their assault could reach the enemy, the enemy had already opened a Space-time Wormhole and dispatched powerful Four-dimensional biological weapons to meet them in battle. It certainly didn't seem like they were merely on patrol.
Now it was clear, the enemy had lured them into launching the attack first, so as to hold the moral high ground!
Sinister... It was indeed too sinister!