"Right, when are you leaving?" asked Gaia as she sat opposite the annoying bastard who still had not given away any useful information about his people. The only thing she had managed to learn was that they were long-lived, which apparently meant they did not have any real sense of urgency in their bones. Hell, she did not even know whether he had deliberately taken on the appearance of a silver-haired elf simply to throw her off his scent. All she knew for certain was that he was here, and he had already overstayed his welcome by a considerable amount.
"Calm down. The energy I put into this avatar is almost gone, so relax, and thank you for allowing me to witness how to effectively separate cultural energy; it will be helpful," said Evindal Trissandoral. He wore a smug expression on his face that made Gaia want to punch him. She stared at him across the table, wondering how someone could manage to be so irritating while saying something that was technically polite. The more he spoke, the more she was convinced that he knew exactly how annoying he was being.
"Right, and you are not going to compensate me for all the knowledge you have learned here?" asked Gaia, her irritation obvious as she remained seated opposite him. She had already figured out that Evindal was not simply visiting Earth out of curiosity. He had asked for permission to land on her planet, but he had clearly used that permission as an opportunity to observe her civilization and learn everything he could. Gaia found the entire situation deeply irritating, especially because she had allowed him to stay without realizing just how much information he could extract.
"No, it was only natural that I should be allowed to have that access, and the universe agrees with me, as it only sees this as another clever plan to get ahead in the race," said Evindal Trissandoral with a completely neutral expression. Gaia stared at him for several seconds after hearing that answer. There was not even a hint that he believed he had done anything wrong, which somehow made his response even more infuriating. To him, everything seemed to be perfectly reasonable simply because the universe allowed it to happen.
"Right, sure, but I am glad you were able to find out how to sort the cultural energy you have stored away," said Gaia. She had already received confirmation that Evindal had essentially asked for permission to land on her planet so he could spy on her civilization and learn things for himself. What truly pissed her off was that he had managed to learn how to properly separate cultural energy without having to spend his own energy doing it. For beings like them, splitting cultural energy into individual concepts instead of keeping it together as one enormous blob was an enormous pain.
Cultural energy could contain countless different emotions, thoughts, memories, and concepts, all mixed together into one massive accumulation. Separating those different elements deliberately required energy, and quite a bit of it at that. For planets like Earth and whatever civilization Evindal belonged to, it was easier to simply use the entire mass of cultural energy rather than spend the resources required to sort it properly. Evindal had already accepted that inefficiency as part of the process, which made it even more infuriating that this bastard had now found a way around it.
"Yes, that was a happy accident, and I will ask the universe to promote the method, and you surely will be rewarded," said Evindal with a condescending smile. Gaia immediately recognized the expression as one of those smiles that made her want to hit someone. Before she could respond, Evindal began to fade away as the energy sustaining his avatar finally ran out. He casually let the cup of coffee in his hand fall, allowing the liquid to spill across the table.
Somehow, precisely one drop of coffee managed to drip over the edge and land directly on Gaia's lap. The rest of the coffee remained perfectly contained on the table, as if the universe itself had decided to add one final insult before Evindal disappeared completely. Gaia looked down at the single drop on her lap, then slowly looked back at the empty seat where his avatar had been sitting. For several seconds, she simply stared at the spot where he had vanished.
"Calm down, Gaia. Getting angry will only hurt yourself," Gaia told herself. She waved her hand and cleaned up the coffee, removing every trace of the mess from the table and her clothes. She wanted to punch something, but she could not exactly do that while being the planet. Her physical existence was Earth itself, and at the moment she did not have enough control over her own strength to casually hit something without potentially causing an absurd amount of damage.
So Gaia remained seated at the table and tried to calm herself down. She had to remind herself that throwing a punch while angry could have consequences far beyond what an ordinary human would have to worry about. If she lost control, she could potentially sink half a continent without meaning to. That was not exactly the kind of emotional outlet she could safely indulge in, especially when she was already responsible for keeping the planet stable.
"What a self-righteous bastard. I will get him one day," thought Gaia. She eventually calmed down, but it took her roughly an hour of sitting in rage inside that Italian coffee shop before she managed to properly settle her emotions. Even after she had calmed down, the irritation remained. Evindal had learned something valuable from her civilization, walked away without giving her anything meaningful in return, and then had the audacity to act as though the entire arrangement had been perfectly fair.
"And that Trial System will pay," thought Gaia. She had not forgotten who had introduced that annoying avatar to her planet in the first place. The Trail System had brought him into contact with Earth simply because Gaia happened to have a few people who were willing to respond to his questions and actually talk back to his stupid jokes. Gaia could not help wondering if this was the thanks she received for being cooperative with the system in the first place.
As for whatever rewards she might receive, please. Gaia did not believe the universe could compensate her for the damage that bastard might cause. She was almost certain that Evindal would happily sell everything he had learned about Earth for pennies on the dollar if doing so benefited him. Information about her civilization, its history, its culture, and its development could be extremely valuable to another planet. Gaia had no doubt that he would use every piece of information he had gathered if it helped his own people.
She also suspected that Evindal would take precautions to ensure that Earth could never become a threat to him or his people in the future. If her humans ever became strong enough to pose a genuine danger, she was certain that they would eventually be forced into conflict. Gaia could imagine the consequences clearly enough, and she did not like them. If things ever reached that point, she was making certain that humanity would destroy the entire planet and every person belonging to the race Evindal was bound to.
The Trials were no joke, despite how many humans treated them as if they were merely enormous video games. Many humans still did not fully believe that they could eventually become slaves or be forced to pay tribute to the masters of other planets. To them, the whole concept still felt too absurd to be real. Gaia, however, knew that it was real because she had already experienced one of the consequences herself.
Why else would she receive a yearly amount of cultural energy from the goblin planet? There was no reason for that energy to appear if the entire system were simply some elaborate game. The tribute came with official protection from the planet's master, meaning that the master was technically obligated to come and provide assistance under certain circumstances. That protection was real, but it also came with some rather significant limitations.
Unless the Void was causing problems on the planet, the master could take all the time in the world before responding to a crisis. They could even choose not to show up at all. If the master decided that protecting their subordinate planet from an invasion by another planet was not worth the effort, there was technically nothing stopping them from simply refusing to intervene.
That sucked majorly. The only real thing preventing a master from completely ignoring their responsibilities was the potential loss of revenue from the planet they controlled. Beyond that, there was very little forcing them to act immediately. Gaia understood the system well enough to know that the protection offered by a master was genuine, but it was not nearly as absolute as many humans imagined.
Now Gaia believed that all of this was probably another test from the universe, although she could not be certain. That did not make her any less pissed off about the situation. Another planet had come to Earth, learned about the history and culture of her civilization, and walked away with useful information, while Gaia had essentially been unable to do anything about it. She could only sit there and accept that another participant in the Trials had managed to gain an advantage from her world.
"Right, back to work," thought Gaia. She finally stopped thinking about Evindal and the universe's ridiculous rules. Her attention shifted back toward the United States, where there were still countless things that required her attention. The avatar was dismissed completely, and Gaia focused all of her attention back toward the USA.