213: Chapter 213 Mosaic Becomes a Racial Humiliation

Rockefeller III slightly raised his drooping head.

He had been standing just behind and to the side of Prince Dao Dun,

and when that row of mosaic preview images popped up densely on the curtain wall, he had already caught from the edge of Prince Dao Dun's black eyeballs—which had never shown any signs of sudden contraction—an extremely subtle gap, akin to the sudden atmospheric pressure change in the very last instant before a storm.

At this moment, he was clearer than ever that whoever answered this question head-on would definitely be directly swallowed by the rage that was about to erupt.

"Your Highness, the cultural differences among the various countries on our planet are extremely vast."

"Sakura Country may have some extremely profound misunderstandings with Zeta Star civilization regarding aesthetics and taboos."

"Given the limitations of our inferior civilization, it is difficult to give an exact explanation in such a short time."

He slightly bowed, his tone respectful and steady,

"However, one thing is certain: showing disrespect to Your Highness is showing disrespect to The Five Great Families."

"As long as Your Highness gives the order, I will personally lead people to Sakura Country right away and make them give an account."

After listening, Prince Dao Dun gently nodded that large head of his,

as if approving of this answer, or as if not buying it at all, and merely temporarily transferring his anger to the next person who hadn't spoken yet.

He turned his gaze to Samuel:

"Samuel, what do you think?"

"Why did those people in Sakura Country deliberately show me reproduction videos of you humans?"

Deep in his heart, Samuel Astor had cursed Shigeru Hasegawa's name back and forth several times.

From Rockefeller's airtight "Tai Chi palm technique" just now, he had long seen that today's correct strategy was:

say as much nonsense as possible, and absolutely never make any substantive judgments.

But Prince Dao Dun directly called out his name.

He slightly stooped his body, his tone solemn and prudent.

"Your Highness, art, in the history of our planet, sometimes indeed treats reproductive behavior as a certain expression symbol."

"In the cultural tradition of Sakura Country, there might be some... um... extremely bizarre aesthetic inertia."

"But no matter what its original intention was, sending it to Your Highness with mosaics applied, in my view, already constitutes a blatant offense against Zeta Star civilization."

He bent down slightly,

"If Your Highness wishes to investigate, Astor Family is willing to go to Sakura Country together with Rockefeller Family to ask clearly in person on Your Highness's behalf."

After listening, Prince Dao Dun fell silent for a moment,

and then shifted those large black eyeballs of his from Samuel's face toward Isabelle, then toward Jacob, and finally toward William Vanderbilt V.

Isabelle DuPont immediately pressed both hands hanging at her sides against her knees, her brain already rapidly searching for any high-civilization explanatory model capable of dissolving the visual impact of the mosaics from the most absurd angle.

Jacob Rothschild, with an almost imperceptible speed, silently blocked the gap beside her, leaned his body slightly forward, and proactively stepped out.

"Your Highness, for such an extremely deep cultural misunderstanding across two civilizations, which may have already been repeatedly distorted by multiple translations and encoding losses, given the cognitive limitations of us inferior humans, it is difficult to see through its full picture at a single glance."

"I do not know whether Sakura Country truly has any malicious intentions, but I know that one person definitely knows."

He stooped his body completely, his tone maintaining an unhurried and steady deference,

"Please summon Goddess of Origin, Your Highness."

"Goddess of Origin is the most precise holographic communication and monitoring core of Zeta Star, and can inherently connect to the expedition fleet's think tank of Zeta Star."

"If Your Highness is willing to ask Goddess of Origin for her opinion, she will surely be able to connect to the fleet communication of Evernight where Grand Commander Nailong is located."

"At that time, the Grand Commander along with all his subordinate high-ranking military think tanks, all long-range communication officers, and the staff group responsible for evaluating all civilization signals in the Solar System can simultaneously provide a more complete and persuasive judgment."

"This is far more comprehensive than a few of us inferior humans, unauthorized by any higher civilization, racking our brains here to hold back any half-baked guesses."

Isabelle let out a long breath, casting a grateful gaze toward Jacob.

William Vanderbilt V, from the side, likewise cast a trace of imperceptible approval and gratitude.

They both knew that if this Jew hadn't stepped forward to stir the chessboard, the next ones to be called out to directly face Your Highness's wrath would be the two of them.

After listening to Jacob's words, Prince Dao Dun gently lifted those slender fingers resting on the armrest that had not moved all along, and snapped his fingers crisply in the air.

Yuanzi emerged from the void in response,

and that dark gold cloud-patterned dark cyan Hanfu under the cold light remained as pure and cold as ice.

As soon as she appeared, she slightly curtsied and bowed to Prince Dao Dun,

and then, following Prince Dao Dun's command, connected the real-time communication screen to the central command dome of Evernight.

The holographic projection unfolded right in the center of the viewing hall,

and the three-dimensional image of Grand Commander Nailong was so clear that one could see the fine engraved patterns of every battle totem on his dark black gloves.

Behind him was a whole row of high-ranking generals of the Zeta Star expedition fleet, frowning one by one as they faced the real-time synchronized preview images of the Sakura Country mosaic folder.

Prince Dao Dun concisely stated the course of events,

and then looked at Chancellor Nailong across the holographic screen:

"Grand Commander, Sakura Country has specially sent over videos covered in mosaics one after another. I don't understand what these lower life forms are trying to do."

"What are your thoughts?"

Grand Commander Nailong shifted his gaze from the mosaic folder already parked on his side screen toward Prince Dao Dun, frowning slightly.

Across his face, which was as steady as a mountain under the cold light of the dome of Evernight, a fleeting flash of confusion crossed,

and then he gently raised his right hand wearing a deep black tactical glove, waving it toward the two generals at the side.

"Your Highness, this question is indeed tricky."

"The lower species on this planet Sakura Country haven't even obtained the inter-stellar communication authorization code yet, and their behavior and symbolic system are extremely chaotic, no easier to decipher than Trisolaris."

"However, I have two think tanks under my command, Baba and Boyi, who have recently handled many interstellar contact events of similar abnormal signals for me."

"Let them come in and analyze it for Your Highness."

He turned his head to signal toward the communication array, and immediately two holographic images were additionally lit up between Prince Dao Dun and Chancellor Nailong.

Two Zeta Star generals, Baba and Boyi, appeared simultaneously on the holographic screen.

As soon as they appeared, they knelt on one knee toward the three-dimensional image of Prince Dao Dun in salute, speaking in unison, "Greetings, Fourth Prince Daodun"

Then, they each stood up, adjusting their body carapaces to the neatest imperial reporting posture with an extremely precise synchronized rhythm.

Prince Dao Dun directly pushed the preview images of those mosaic video folders from Sakura Country to them, and then asked:

"Sakura Country sent all these mosaic-covered videos for me to see."

"I don't understand what Sakura Country ultimately wants to do."

"Which of you can explain clearly what they mean?"

As soon as the signal of the preview images reached their respective tactical tablets, Baba and Boyi rapidly scanned the entire folder within the exact same second.

The two of them raised their heads from the data light array almost simultaneously, the light flashing in their eyes completely burned extremely bright by an incredulous rage,

which was the righteous indignation of a higher civilization that suddenly burned from their chest cavities after being trampled layer upon layer by such a shoddy, primitive, and utterly bottomless means of humiliation, now leaking out simultaneously from the edges of Baba and Boyi's face masks.

"Fourth Prince!"

Baba sank both knees back down to the ground, his tone switching in a second from the previous deference to the grimness and urgency after being thoroughly infuriated,

"The people of Sakura Country are playing you for a fool, Your Highness!"

Boyi closely followed, likewise ripping open his throat—which was shaken until an entire row of vocal cords trembled by this unannounced war of thoroughly trampled self-esteem—and issuing a torn roar:

"Your Highness! The people of Sakura Country are playing you for a fool, Your Highness!"

"They are not misunderstanding at all; they are intentionally humiliating you! Humiliating all of us Zeta Stars!"

Prince Dao Dun gently tightened the fingers resting on the sofa's armrest, and those two slender fingers that had just snapped their fingers were now completely gripping the edge of the leather armrest.

He looked at Baba and Boyi's faces full of fury, his tone instead calmer and lower than during any previous questioning:

"Explain clearly."

Baba abruptly lifted his slender arms—which year-round wore dark gloves of the same model as the expedition fleet—toward his chest, the fine patterns on his entire grayish-white face mask tightened even tighter than at any moment in combat states due to the rage suppressed to the absolute extreme:

"Your Highness, these videos sent to you by Sakura Country are all human reproduction processes."

He flicked his gloved hand to the side with an extremely disdainful gesture,

"They just want to tell Your Highness that we Zeta Stars have now degenerated to the point where even the most basic natural reproductive ability has been completely lost!"

"We must rely on gene-matching pods to reproduce offspring, requiring maternal womb perfusion systems and consciousness-access management terminals to stabilize embryos."

"And they... these lowly Earth bugs! They can still use the most primitive and purest physical contact to reproduce the next generation, just like our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago!"

"Sakura Country wants to use these mosaic-covered reproduction videos of theirs to humiliate us disabled civilization that has lost its reproductive capacity!"

Boyi pushed Baba's gesture forward, turned that grayish-white face mask—which was likewise filled with contempt and humiliation—back toward Prince Dao Dun, and added a sentence forward:

"Your Highness, the minds of the people of Sakura Country are simply deserving of execution!"

"They felt that merely sending human reproduction videos wasn't humiliating enough, so they even applied mosaics to the critical parts!"

"That is intentionally mocking all of us Zeta Stars:"

" 'Don't you lack reproductive ability? Then I will cover up all the parts of human reproduction, so that you can't even see them clearly, and so that you can never imagine what a complete human reproductive organ looks like!' "

"They are not applying mosaics; they are pointing at our entire Zeta Star civilization and saying, 'You are a bunch of trash whose reproductive organs have evolved away!' "