How was Damon supposed to explain to this woman that his strongest skill was hauling boxes without blowing out his back?
Pure panic jammed his throat shut.
Iris read his silence as post-battle trauma and some noble survivor's guilt.
Her blue eyes locked on him with a devotion that made him want to puke.
"It's okay… our healer briefed us on your 'mana backlash.' It must be a complete shock… for you, master… to lose your powers after saving everyone."
What the hell?
Mana backlash, my ass.
Did she seriously think I'm Zero and I just… lost my powers?
"Oh, and one symptom of that backlash can be temporary memory loss. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Iris Valen, Captain of the Inquisitors. I'll be in charge of your recovery and your personal security. No one will get near you without my permission."
Iris paused and glanced down at the holographic tablet in her hand.
"Also, Master… the doctors were confused at first. They tried to confirm your identity with a biometric scan, but it was useless."
Biometric? Shit. They're gonna find out I'm F-Rank.
"The radiation from the blast was so intense it rewrote your genetic code,"
"Your fingerprints burned off, and your DNA is so saturated with Void energy that the ID machines just spit out 'Read Error.' To the medical system, you're a biological anomaly they can't decode. A one-of-a-kind being."
What? Seriously?
The explosion wiped me from the system? I'm a ghost. God bless magical radiation.
She rose and dipped into a bow, crisp and martial, like it came out of a drill manual.
"It's an honor to serve you."
Damon blinked at how fast she'd switched from teary-eyed to pure professionalism, but yeah, he was "supposed" to be higher rank than her.
Hunter etiquette meant she owed him respect.
Still, it felt weird that the Inquisitors handled the recovery of a Solo Hunter.
The Inquisitors weren't nurses. They were the Government's guard dogs.
He had questions, but none of that mattered right now. He needed to get out of here and get back to work.
Damon tried to sit up. Pointless.
He was still wrapped in casts, and he couldn't move his arms or legs.
"You shouldn't try to get up on your own! You've been in a coma for two months, and your recovery ability isn't any better than a normal human's right now. You need to wait!"
Heh. My recovery ability has always been normal… wait.
Damon's brain hard-stopped.
Did she say…
"Two months?!"
"Don't strain your voice! Nurse, please!"
The heart monitor beside him started screaming like it was possessed. Yeah.
Now he was completely screwed.
His job? Gone.
His debts? Two months of compound interest with the Viper lenders had to be outright insane.
And his apartment? His damn landlady probably sold his comics and threw everything else in the trash.
---
After the nurse managed to get him under control and pumped him with something to stop the hyperventilating, they fed him and turned on the TV.
To Damon, it was all background noise while he did the math in his head, trying to figure out how deep he was.
Then the tiny screen flashed a blood-red headline:
"BREAKING! IN OTHER NEWS, NATIONAL HERO ZERO HAS AWAKENED FROM HIS COMA!"
A reporter kept talking while the broadcast showed a photo of his face, a horrible shot from his delivery ID, and another of Zero in a black suit and mask.
"…After surviving an Unidentified-Rank Rift where over two thousand people died, including multiple well-known Hunters from the top guilds, and saving millions of lives with a suicidal Mana Explosion maneuver… Zero, now publicly identified as Damon Kells, has returned."
The segment jumped to street interviews.
Cut to people sobbing. Candles. Little shrines.
"'Damon Kells, I love you! Please, put a baby in me!'" a group of young girls screamed outside the clinic, holding posters with his face.
Damon hit full-on panic.
Now everyone knew his name and his face, and they thought he was Zero.
How was he supposed to crawl out of this mess?
How do you confuse an F-Rank with a hero?
If he walked outside and a goblin jumped him, he'd die live on camera in front of his fans.
Also, what was that Mana Explosion thing?
Was that the ear-splitting roar he'd heard when the real Zero raised his hand?
That Hunter had to be dead. There was no way anyone survived that.
Zero's body had been coming apart before the blast.
Damon's eyes slid to the shard of mask sitting on his nightstand.
Was that why they'd mistaken him?
He tried to reach it. His fingers barely brushed the cold material.
A spike of pain punched through his right eye, like a needle jammed straight into his retina.
A floating blue window flickered into existence, its text warped like badly written code:
[ITEM: Fragment of the Void Mask]
[RANK: A+ (Damaged)]
[STATUS: Bound]
[Damage Resistance: +500 (Currently 0)]
[Concealment: +500 (Currently 0)]
[SYSTEM NOTE: User does not meet mana requirements.]
Stats? What the hell was this?
Had he hit his head so hard he started seeing a video game UI?
Damon tried to touch the window. His hand passed right through it, and it vanished.
He told himself it was just the meds messing with him, so he tested it again. He looked at the remote. The eye pain came back, lighter this time.
[ITEM: Hospital TV Remote]
[RANK: F (Trash)]
[Hidden Ability: None]
[Sale Value: $5]
Ha… even TV remotes are like me. Trash.
Then his street-rat brain clicked.
Wait.
He could see an item's rank and value. He could see hidden info.
If he hit a flea market… if he went dumpster diving behind the big guilds… he could find items that looked like junk and flip them.
He could get rich.
But to get rich, he had to get out of this room alive first.
He remembered the phone Iris had left on the table: "Zero's Communicator."
Matte black. No branding. It looked like military hardware.
Damon picked it up. He hesitated. Should he use his new "ability" on it?
[ITEM: Inquisition Quantum Link]
[RANK: S]
[STATUS: Encrypted / TRACKED]
[WARNING: Microphone active. Live transmission to the Central Tower.]
His blood turned to ice. They were listening to him right now.
He didn't have a choice.
He dialed the only number he knew by heart.
One. Two. Three rings.
"Who is this?"
Damon pressed the phone tight to his mouth.
"Listen up, rat. It's me. Code Red."
Silence on the other end. Then Jude's voice changed.
"Damon? Is that you?" Jude dropped his voice. "Bro, if you're calling from the hospital… hang up. Hang up right now."
"What? I need you to get me out of…"
"Shut up!" Jude cut him off. "You don't get it. Ten minutes ago they announced that anyone who tries to contact 'Hero Zero' without authorization will be treated as a national terrorist."
"And Damon… someone just knocked on my door."