"Does this kind of advertising have a good effect?" Jiang Ye asked. "Can it effectively increase sales?"
"I don't know, it's hard to get such data," Fu Qiuyan shook his head. "I only know two things about this kind of advertising: first, it will significantly increase the number of bird collisions with buildings and increase the floating vehicle accident rate by one in ten thousand. Second, it can increase the advertising price by 50% and promote the prosperity of the advertising industry. For money, we have to sacrifice safety."
Jiang Ye's expression was blank. He had just thought this interactive holographic projection advertisement was very cool and could consider introducing the technology. But since it would lead to an increase in traffic accidents, it was better not to introduce it. His planet didn't lack money for now.
The special car passed through the city and flew for a long time in the dark wilderness before finally landing in a valley.
The gray prison building stood at the bottom of the valley, like a part of the mountain, looking very solid. Near the prison were artillery turrets, helicopter camps, and artillery camps. They looked quite brutal. Any escapee would immediately be shelled. If not killed by shelling, they would be bombed by helicopter fire.
Fu Qiuyan got out of the car and raised his hand to shield the top of the car door.
Jiang Ye also got out of the car and followed Fu Qiuyan into the prison.
Mechanical soldiers and human jailers were everywhere, mostly fat women with thick waists and fierce expressions.
The above-ground part of the prison held ordinary prisoners, nothing special.
But after passing through two half-meter-thick blast doors and two airtight doors, Jiang Ye and Fu Qiuyan changed into orange protective suits, and then passed through two germ-proof doors to enter the underground section. The situation was completely different.
The completely metallic walls, floor, and ceiling, and the cold white lighting created a very eerie atmosphere, like entering the interior of some top-secret location in a sci-fi movie.
There were some patrolling armed jailers, all wearing orange protective suits. It was likely that alien prisoners were held here, and many alien species would release toxic gases, venom, or even carry unknown bacteria and parasites on their bodies, so strict precautions were necessary.
Finally, Jiang Ye arrived at the Toadmen's cells.
The outer walls of the cells were made of fully transparent special glass. There were four cells in total, with two Toadmen in each cell, making a total of eight.
Jiang Ye stood outside the glass wall and looked carefully.
He inexplicably felt like he was visiting a zoo, as the Toadmen were indeed alien animals, and they were kept in small rooms behind glass walls.
The Toadmen in the cells seemed to be sleeping, wearing bulky gray clothes and curled up in the corners.
They were quite huge, at least four meters long. Their yellow-green heads were as large as a pig's, their necks were swollen, and their skin was incredibly disgusting, covered with blisters of various sizes, oozing pus. The pus on each Toadman had a different color. Most of them were shades of yellow-green, while only the smallest Toadman had purple pus.
"Why is this one purple?" Jiang Ye asked. "Is it sick or injured?"
"Different breeds," Fu Qiuyan explained from the side. "The large yellow-green Toadmen are often at the bottom in Toadman society, with less money, fewer mates, and they have to do hard labor. The small blue-purple pus Toadmen generally have higher status, live in the affluent areas of the Toadman planet, can have 3 to 5 mates, and their average income is about ten times higher. They are often minor leaders of the Toadman group. We didn't catch any red Toadmen this time. The Toadmen with red pus have the highest status, often leading tens of thousands of Toadmen in Toadman society, enjoying more than 10 mates, and their income is a hundred times higher than yellow-green Toadmen."
"Good heavens," Jiang Ye exclaimed. "Is this racial suppression?"
"It's not purely racial suppression. Red Toadmen have longer lifespans, higher intelligence, and higher concentrations of pheromones, in other words, they are more charming," Fu Qiuyan said. "Yellow-green Toadmen have short lifespans and are stupid, but they are strong and run fast, so they are often infantry in frontline combat. These types of Toadmen have diverged in evolution for over two million years. The top-tier Toadmen are orange-yellow. There is one for every ten thousand red Toadmen, which is very rare. They are usually the highest echelon of the Toadman planet and would never appear in low-class mining teams."
Jiang Ye frowned. The Toadmen oozing red pus looked like they were half-dead and bleeding, yet they were considered the most charming.
As if sensing being watched, the blue Toadman in the corner of the cell turned over, opened its eyes, and stared at Jiang Ye.
Given the Toadman's size, its eyes should have been as large as basketballs. But in reality, they were only the size of lychees, black and inconspicuous, hidden among the surrounding blisters. Its eyelids blinked very quickly, three times per second.
"Damn, it looks a bit stupid," Jiang Ye couldn't help but say.
"Blue Toadmen have higher intelligence than both of us, with an average IQ of 160," Fu Qiuyan said faintly.
Jiang Ye raised his hand.
The blue Toadman immediately raised its sticky claw.
Jiang Ye instantly felt that it was very smart, mimicking him too quickly and naturally.
Jiang Ye made a "come here" gesture.
The blue Toadman hesitated for a moment, then immediately got up and crawled over on all fours, pressing its huge, ugly face against the glass to make eye contact with Jiang Ye.
It also raised its claw and wrote a string of crooked characters on the glass with the blue slime on its body.
Jiang Ye frowned; the characters looked somewhat familiar.
The blue Toadman paused, as if observing Jiang Ye's expression, then wiped away the characters with its claw. After a moment of hesitation, it rewrote them. This time, they were human characters that could be understood:
"Galactic Empire Prisoner Convention"
Jiang Ye was stunned for a moment, then he smiled.
The Galactic Empire had such a prisoner convention, similar to the prisoner-of-war conventions on ancient Earth. The general content was not to abuse prisoners and to respect the right to life of every alien species.
"It knows our language?" Jiang Ye turned to look at Fu Qiuyan.
"No, it only knows how to write this sentence. Every time someone stands here and looks at it, it comes over and writes this, emphasizing it repeatedly," Fu Qiuyan smiled. "It's probably because the Toadman mining team specifically studied key vocabulary for communicating with humans before departing for our territory, so they could use it at important moments."
Jiang Ye continued to smile. This blue Toadman was probably very scared, afraid that humans would abuse or even kill it, so it kept writing the name of this convention, meaning 'don't kill me.'
"Have you communicated with them in the Toadman language?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Not yet. We are borrowing a Toadman language expert from another planet," Fu Qiuyan looked down at his watch. "They should arrive in about six hours, and then we can communicate with the Toadmen immediately."
"Then I'll wait. I want to see the communication process," Jiang Ye said. "I'm quite tired. Can you find a place for me to sleep for a night? Or should I go back to the spaceship to rest?"
"It's already prepared," Fu Qiuyan smiled. "How could I let you stay on the spaceship?"