For the record, Jake had never opened any system menu related to him being a City Lord or the World Leader of his own volition. The only times he’d touched them was when Miranda asked for him to do something, and that something was more often than not just transferring rights and permissions.

In Jake’s defense, he blamed the bad UI of the system. How was it his fault the system didn’t have an “allow all” button? At least these existed for some major categories, and shortly after Jake became the World Leader, he went over these and granted rights to Miranda.

The problem was that the UI wasn’t static. New things would be unlocked with time, and how much the “country” or “kingdom” or whatever expanded. At least when it came to all the City Lord stuff, Miranda did have pretty much every permission available, but the permissions given had begun to fall behind severely with the World Leader stuff.

Also, because Jake didn’t have any profession related to City Lord stuff, he had to actually touch the Pylon of Civilization to activate it and see the system interface. Was it enough for him to just touch it with a bit of mana, or potentially even just his presence, allowing him to do it from hundreds of meters away easily, including during all the time he’d spent in his lab?

Well, yes, but Jake didn’t think about it, and that was the defense he was sticking to after he’d gone to talk to Miranda.

Jake was right nearby, so he’d been the first to arrive for their meeting after Arnold contacted him, with others like Arthur, the Fallen King, and Sword Saint needing a bit to get ready.

“So we both agree that we’re going back to your lodge to get this fixed here and now while we still have some time?” Miranda asked after a very enlightening conversation.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jake said in a semi-joking, semi-meek tone as he scratched the back his his head. “But… can I just add that I think you’ve done a brilliant job?”

“Well, thank you,” Miranda smiled. “Now imagine how much more brilliant it would have been if I didn’t have several options unavailable to me as your stand-in World Leader. To clarify, if you wish to take back full control and manage the planet yourself, I would more than happily-”

“Oh, would you look at that? I can give you World Leader permission stuff right here and now without going to the Pylon!” Jake quickly said as he hurridly found the system menu and began allocating all the new features to Miranda. Seriously, why didn’t it just automatically allow her to do all that stuff? He had officially made her his stand-in even by system standards, yet some things were still not granted by default.

After Jake was done, he couldn’t help but sigh. “Can I blame the system again? All this should just be automatic…”

“If I may,” Lillian, who was now sporting a cool mask – great fashion choice, by the way – spoke up. “Some new features for World Leaders become available that hold quite a lot of power most World Leaders wouldn’t ever want to unilaterally grant others. So a manual granting of permissions is likely implemented to avoid problems.”

“I kind of get it, but it isn’t like the permissions do anything overly dramatic,” Jake shook his head.

“You just gave me permission to control practically every single Pylon of Civilization on the planet, and not just their associated defensive barriers, but the ability to simply blow them up, which would cause worldwide panic and the resulting explosions kill thousands,” Miranda added.

“And such power couldn’t be in better hands,” Jake smiled brightly. “Now, let’s go to the lodge and get the rest of these dumb permissions granted.”

That was precisely what they proceeded to do, as Jake and Miranda quickly popped by his lodge and got all that sorted. On the way, Jake even proposed maybe asking Villy if he had a solution to automate all this granting of permissions, but Miranda made it clear she’d already asked the Verdant Witches and that while it was a bit annoying right now, it would cease to be an issue with time.

The problem was just that their faction was still rapidly growing and in a period of change, leading to many new things happening. Once things like the Prima Guardian were handled and Jake had fully become the World Leader by laying claim to Earth’s Planetary Pylon, things should be a lot easier.

Making their way back again, the two also just caught up with everything that had happened to Haven’s resident witch. Miranda already knew pretty much everything Jake had done as she got updates every single time they’d stopped by a City Floor. Jake hadn’t known much about what Miranda had been up to, though, and he was pretty curious about how she’d handled the place.

When they were back, Lillian also joined the conversation as they waited for everyone to be ready to join for a meeting. Only the three of them, and a few others who would arrive shortly, would be physically present, while the rest would just get in contact remotely.

It was pretty understandable, considering all of them were busy doing their own stuff and pretty far away. Even if they could just use the teleportation network, that would still take some time. Besides, going somewhere for people like Arthur wasn’t as easy as someone like Jake. He also needed bodyguards and stuff to come along, making it an entire thing.

On a side note, one of the people who would join remotely was Arnold. Arnold lived only a few kilometers away and could get to the meeting room in a few minutes if he wanted to, but he’d still decided to work from home. Jake very much respected that decision.

Holstred, the guy Jake had tried to prank with Sandy, expectedly entered the room shortly after, along with two people Jake didn’t recognize. One of them was a beastfolk man, while the other one was a scalekin. Both of them acted overly polite toward Jake, but he had honestly gotten used to that by now.

Entering the large meeting room with them all, Jake was impressed by everything he saw. It was designed like one of those big board rooms rich people had board meetings in before the system, except they now had the technology to project holograms and stuff of everyone participating.

Miranda directed Jake to take a seat at the head of the table – a seat that was usually left empty, as it was reserved for the true World Leader as a symbolic gesture. Even if he wasn’t the one actually leading the meeting or doing much at all, Miranda didn’t want to hear any arguments, as it was only considered proper that the one with the highest status would sit there. Jake’s offer of just standing in the corner with Unseen Hunter active was also rapidly shot down, so Jake surrendered himself to his fate and took a seat. Beside him, Miranda and Lillian sat, joined by Holstred, the scalekin, and the beastfolk guy.

With everyone seated, Miranda officially began the meeting.

Projections appeared all around the table as Miranda activated a crystal in the center. Jake saw the Fallen King, Sword Saint, Sky Whale, Arthur, his little brother, and many more familiar faces. Even the pretty shady merchant Renato, who ran Paradise, the city Jake had visited with Carmen during their little road trip way back.

“Thank you all for making time today. As you can see, Lord Thayne will also be attending this meeting, but please do not pay it too much mind, and let us proceed as usual,” Miranda opened the meeting. “Let me begin by saying I am more than pleased to see how well Earth is doing even in my absence. Brilliant work. However, I am fully aware challenges may be lurking under the surface, so do not hesitate to bring them up. Now, Arthur, if you would get us all up to speed with everything.”

“Of course,” the projection of Arthur answered, his voice sounding just like as if he was there in person. “I would also like to welcome Ms. Wells and everyone else back, and I hope you have had a fruitful journey. Regarding Earth, let us start with-“

What followed reminded Jake way too much of those overly long meetings Jacob sometimes dragged him to before the system. That was, in some ways, lucky, as that meant Jake was trained to not zone out too much, but actually listen in case he would be asked to reference anything said in a later report.

Arthur started out by going over a lot of stats. Not the cool kind of stats, like Perception, but boring stats, like housing developments, employment rates, material gathering, birth rates, and a whole bunch of other things. He even had graphs and stuff to show, making it clear he had prepared for this meeting for a while… or he just kept updated stats at all times. Maybe the latter was actually more probable, considering how much more convenient the system had made a lot of things.

After Arthur, others followed, including some of those who worked with the guy. Renato also joined in to talk about entertainment and the economy, while Holstred touched on the integration of former slaves, joined by the beastfolk and scalekins, who outlined some of the challenges they faced, including quite a bit of xenophobia from humans who didn’t like anyone who didn’t look enough human for their taste. Elves didn’t really face any problems, nor did the few dwarves who had come to Earth. It was primarily the more monstrous races who faced discrimination. Lots of shop owners, adventurer parties, and just people in general were being royal assholes.

Jake had to hold himself back from just suggesting referring these people to the Court of Shadows and dealing with it that way, but the Sky Whale offered some more open-minded solutions. In the end, the conclusion was pretty much that they would actively try to quell these harmful sentiments, with a realization that the more time passed, the smaller the problem would get. The younger generation showed way less apprehension toward dealing with other races, and as the multiverse opened up more, people would have to get used to how the world worked now or get lost.

They could always provide them with totally free one-way trips to the moon if they got too annoying. Just an option.

Once they were done talking about all the overly complicated stuff, they finally got to the topic of the Prima Guardian Preparation Plan. Jake had heard a bit about this plan already, and from the sounds of it, things were going well.

The ones behind the preparations did realize Earth was simply too large to account for everything. There would definitely be some hidden monsters somewhere that could cause trouble for humanity should they side with the Prima Guardian, but there shouldn’t be too many. At least not close to human lands. The further they got away from where humanity lived, the less anyone knew of what lived there, though Arnold had tried to map out most things. Jake even came to learn that Arnold had worked with a dozen or so parties specializing in exploration to create a map of the planet with notable locations marked.

The Sky Whale also talked about the sky and oceans quite a bit, where it became clear Sylphie had been quite a help, having spent nearly all the time since they returned from Nevermore hunting down problematic monsters or convincing them to join the light side. Then, there was the entire underground world, which was definitely the least explored overall. Earth was simply too large now, with the planet having tunnels leading all the way to the core. Efforts had been focused on mapping only the upper layers while setting up methods of detection shouldn’t anything deemed too dangerous emerge.

All in all, Jake was impressed with all the work that had gone into preparing for the Prima Guardian. He wasn’t sure if he should feel bad, knowing how busy everyone had been, especially over the last many months. Someone like the Fallen King had also been busy as hell dealing with monsters and effectively setting up a huge domain of his own in what was once not considered human lands at all.

The Sword Saint was the only one relatable. He had done a bit of stuff with his clan but otherwise focused solely on training. He even spoke a bit about the mythical training formation he had been granted by Minaga and how great that was. Oh, and then he mentioned how he had people go over everything he had gathered in Nevermore within his spatial storage to put it to use… so not that relatable after all. Especially not when he asked Jake if he had time to set up the Minaga’s Labyrinth Dungeon he had been given for his top-tier performance in the Challenge Dungeon.

A reward Jake had definitely not forgotten and his explanation that he was waiting for Miranda to return to make the dungeon wasn’t just him making up a reasonable excuse on the fly. Nope, Jake would never forget important stuff like that.

Either way, the meeting continued smoothly as Jake learned way more than he needed to about everything going on with the planet. Again, he could only conclude that things were going pretty well, even if there were some major issues they had to address. Jake was honestly impressed with himself for having been zoned in for the whole nearly six-hour meeting because, hot damn, had it been boring at times.

Jake also understood that his own heavy-handed approaches wouldn’t work on any of those problems. The only place he could help was with the Prima Guardian preparation, and it didn’t particularly sound like they needed help, especially not after Arnold returned. The guy was a one-man army, achieved by deploying a literal army of drones and robots and stuff.

After some final pleasantries, the meeting ended, as Jake had entirely forgotten to bring up one topic. Luckily, Miranda, Lillian, Holstred, and the two with him were still there, even after the projections were gone.

“Things are going better than expected,” Miranda said with a smile. “Lillian, inform me when those reports Arthur talked about arrive. Now, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

“Just one thing,” Jake interrupted her, earning him a raised eyebrow as the three non-natives of the planet also looked at him with their undivided attention. “Would you find any issues with blowing up the moon?”

Miranda stared at him for several moments before collecting herself. “Why are you asking about blowing up the moon?”

“It’s haunted,” Jake explained with a shrug.

During that day, Jake had spent a lot of time with Miranda, but they had only talked about Nevermore stuff, making him totally forget about bringing up his recent moon visit.

“The moon is… haunted?” Miranda asked, seemingly not entirely sure if she should take him seriously.

“Yep, real nasty haunting too. A powerful B-grade has integrated with the core,” Jake further explained. “Ah, this isn’t a rush-job… I doubt it’s feasible to handle the situation before B-grade. Or maybe I can do it at peak C-grade, but either way, it won’t be for a while. Suffice to say, things didn’t end well when Sandy and I visited.”

“That… alright, it actually makes sense,” Miranda nodded. “I take it this B-grade is contained for now, and it won’t be a problem with the Prima Guardian?”

“It won’t,” Jake shook his head.

“Great,” Miranda said. “In that case, do as you see fit, as long as it doesn’t result in giant moon rocks destroying half of the planet or something in the process.”

“It should be fine,” Jake said with a shrug as one other concern struck him. “Say, Lillian, would it negatively impact you if the moon is gone? Seeing as you’re walking down a Path related to moonlight and all.”

“Not at all,” Lillian answered, as she explained: “The moon is more of a conceptual representation rather than a physical object. It’s all about visualization and understanding the underlying concepts of lunar energies and other concepts. If I wasn’t able to perform without a physical moon, I would have been quite a burden within Nevermore, wouldn’t I?”

“That’s good to know,” Jake smiled. Thinking back, it wasn’t like there had been a real moon in the Lucenti Plains with the Great White Stag, either.

“What you said also just reminded me,” Miranda said with a frown. “You said the Chosen of the Lord Protector had gone to the moon with you, but it seems no one has heard anything since. Do you know why no one can locate the Chosen?”

“Oh,” Jake said casually. “It’s because Sandy died.”