Elderra Cosmic Circle 3928.
After stopping twice along the way - once, when I discovered a new type of energy that had many fascinating applications, and twice, when I spotted the five members of what I could only theorize to be a space-oriented race - I finally had reached my destination.
After searching for three cosmic circles, I had finally found the place I was looking for; a place suitable to study and research the "need", that particular drive which most sentient lifeforms have engraved in their very being, compelling them to want to possess as many resources as possible, without any real need for them.
In front of me floated or was suspended in space to be precise, a massive artificial planet. It was a messy sum of metal constructs and infrastructures mushed together.
Each construct and infrastructure was dissimilar from the others; their different styles and colors as many as the stars in this cosmos.
Many metal vehicles or ships as they called them, big and small, were going in and out of the irregular looking planet, transporting a varied number of sentient beings in them.
Observing all the different races present on this roughly merged together planet, I changed my appearance to a random form I was familiar with and which I used often.
My figure transformed to the standard humanoid shape of this cosmos with no distinctive features to be had.
As ready as I could possibly be for this research venture, I quickly teleported inside the ugly planet.
My location of exit was one of the lower metal layers, with many bridges above me connecting the many structures together.
The first thing I took notice of was the noise. A hellish mix of different shouts, screams and background noise invaded my ears and tried to infiltrate my brain.
The immediate next was the beings who were present. When observed from a distance, although I knew there were many of them, it was not impactful. It was another story altogether being amongst them down there. My vision was almost over-flooded with the mass of beings walking everywhere around me.
Anywhere I turned, beings of different races and characteristics were busying about. Some were selling their belongings or products for currency while others were buying them. Some where sitting at a food establishment and were chatting while laughing and drinking while others were transporting boxes or fellow beings in their small metal ships above the passerby.
No one stood still or idle; everyone was moving. I shut the annoying surrounding noise from my senses as I followed their behavior and started moving myself, walking through the sea of myriad beings as I analyzed what I already knew of the "need" and what was the best place to observe it on this planet.
The "need" of the sentient beings revolved around the acquisition and ownership of resources. The accumulation of said resources could be further called by them as "wealth", meaning having many resources which had value.
From the different sentient races I had observed so far, and in most cases, that value could be counted with the help of invented currency, which itself, more often than not, was in the varied forms of small pieces of metal, whether that came in square or circular shape or in gold or silver color.
So, in conclusion, to find the best location to research the "need", I first needed to find the place where the most amount of currency was present, as that would provide me with the best data.
Currency produced a peculiar sound when many pieces of it were being moved together, so it was easy for me to focus on and follow its path as its sound got crispier the more there were.
After traveling through half the planet, I found myself outside one of the biggest building structures on the planet. Its most prominent color on its exterior was gold, which happened to be the most commonly used color of metal for making currencies. I knew for certain then that I had found the right place.
Stepping inside, the clinking sound of currency was ever-present as the place was filled with sentient beings clustered together in many small groups, seated at tables, counters or around horizontal wheels while others were seated alone in front of screens, with vertical columns and many drawings of fruits projected inside.
The wheels turned, with the sentient beings around them staring anxiously at a small ball hopping inside it, while the columns on the screens were quickly scrolling down with blurred images, only to stop abruptly after a while with their drawings of fruits forming different patterns.
The atmosphere was livid while the gleaming currencies dazzled the place. I moved through the different objects and stations of interest, recording everything down for my research.
All was going well, my data on the topic kept being enriched, all until I wondered at a more populated area of the building.
It was already hard moving around without accidentally bumping onto these mortals, but that area proved even more difficult to navigate through.
Before long, in my efforts to avoid a jumping being who screamed with its hands up, I stepped on the tentacles of another.
An earsplitting screech reverberated the area, almost even drowning the clinking of the currency. At least in dozens of steps away, all chattering and clamoring stopped, and all present turned towards me.
A shadow also covered me as the being whom the tentacles belonged to stared at me intensely from above.
'Damn, will my research end here? What was the matter with that loud screech? Is this being a cousin species of those feline quadrupedal animals who scream when their tails are stepped on?' I thought while I stared back at the creature.
It seemed that my staring had agitated it more, as it screamed to the sailing of this floor, its many tentacles waving wildly in all directions.
I was going to let its disturbance to my research slide, considering it was kind of my fault it behaved like that, but then he dared to madly lash its tentacles around.
Screaming was ok, it wouldn't disturb my research area for long but destroying the items around us and injuring my subjects, thus potentially foiling my research was another thing entirely! I could never allow it to succeed!
I stepped forwards and slapped it!