The decorations inside my office in my manor in Nova City surprised me.  Someone—probably Justin—had gone back to my apartment in Los Angeles and grabbed some of the decor from my old apartment.


    There were a variety of Marvel superhero posters, and a few cheap paintings of waves and fruit and shit I had found at a flea market.


    It was a nice gesture, but it felt somewhat infantilizing. I was a superhero, now.  I didn’t need these posters to look up to.


    Or, at least, I should be a superhero.  But it’s funny how the world works, sometimes.


    I glanced at the Communication Amulet that was looped through my belt. I kept waiting for it to buzz, ready to go on the next adventure, but it hadn’t, yet.


    It was a strange feeling, the feeling of not being needed. Here I was. Jarek Novak, Zonebane.


    No, that sounded lame.


    Jarek Novak, Bane of the Zone Lords.


    That sounded a bit better.


    I had killed three Zone Lords—two in the last 24 hours.  You would think that would make me one of the most influential people in the world.


    But it didn’t, because the world was like that.


    Dawnbreaker was still vaguely suspicious of me, even though I swore that Evangeline had tried to kill me.  In retrospect, I should have expected it. And I kind of did.


    I guess a track record of backstabbing makes me less believable. Who knew? I thought, sarcastically, to Samantha.


    If I had wanted Evangeline dead, then I could have killed her easily. Saying that to Dawnbreaker didn’t seem to help my case, though.


    The other Hell Mode Challengers had successfully killed Africa’s Zone Lord, and Dawnbreaker was currently meeting with them discussing world politics and shit.


    I hadn’t been invited.


    Instead, after my meeting with Dawnbreaker, I, Jarek Zonebane, voluntarily walked into my underground prison in order to be tortured by my older sister.


    Well, fortunately, at least, no torturing was necessary.  Petra didn’t find any signs of Samantha’s tampering in my brain after interrogating each of us in turn, and so I was quickly released.


    But it left a sour taste in my mouth, this feeling of powerlessness.


    I knew I should be thankful for this brief respite from battle.  Soon, our coastal cities would be under attack, and then in just a few more days, far more dangerous threats would appear in our world.


    I wasn’t some battle junkie. I didn’t have an itch to continue fighting. If I did, that would be an easy fix. I could just pick up my sword and march to any of the dozens of cities that were currently under attack.


    It was something else that didn’t sit well with me. It was that whatever I did, I couldn’t shake this feeling that people didn’t trust me.


    Uman promised that he was working on improving my PR, publicizing news about how I have defeated three Zone Lords, but even that… did heroes really need to publish their deeds, spinning them in a positive light?  My actions shouldn’t need a spin to look positive.


    I let River die, in order to kill a shade.


    I let Dawnbreaker carry the team, acting as the spotter until the Gravity Leech was wounded, and then I struck once Dawnbreaker did all the hard work.


    I killed the Sandman in Europe, but now Evangeline is saying that I we killed it together, and I ran away with all the loot and tried to kill her when she protested.


    Dawnbreaker had sent me a message saying that Evangeline even had soldiers swearing that we left to defeat the Sandman together.


    I glanced up at the superheroes on the wall. What would it take, to become one of them?Stolen novel; please report.


    <Well, if you’re done moping, you can start by using your C-rank Treasury Token,> Samantha said, blasély.


    I jolted somewhat, slightly surprised by Samantha’s voice.


    Right, I said, feeling a slight thrill of excitement at the thought of the Treasury in front of me. What do you think I should get?


    <Well, it can be helpful to think about things in terms of value, and in terms of need.  You already have a C-rank Profession. Technically, you could buy a C-rank Class as well. But you will find that most of the C-rank classes available are pretty bland. You could become a C-rank Earth, Ice, Fire, or Air magician, for example, but honestly, that would be a waste. Your class is really special. It will automatically upgrade when you reach level 50, and so it’s not worth it to get a C-rank Class from the Treasury.>


    <The next most valuable thing you can get from the treasury would be a C-rank Rune Pattern Blueprint,> Samantha continued.  <Naturally, a blueprint would have a value many times greater than a C-rank item or equipment itself.  Now, if you open up the Treasury, I will show you what I have in mind.>


    At Samantha’s suggestion, I opened the Treasury, and a blue, translucent screen unfolded over half my vision.


    I filtered for Rune Pattern Blueprints, and Samantha continued her explanation. <We really need to continue thinking about synergy,> she said. <Generally, the hidden benefit of a combined Internal Mana Affinity and a Rune Master Profession is that people can add rune patterns to their own body, making themselves stronger, or faster, or more durable.  But that kind of rune pattern is useless for you, because you already can do that with your Mana Modulator class.  That said, there are other Rune Patterns that we can form on your body. And this is what I would suggest.


    Mana Cannon Rune Pattern Blueprint (C-rank): When activated, converts attuned Mana Beads, Mana Shards, Mana Crystals, or Mana Orbs into long-ranged, elemental attacks of varied range and size.  Requires: Rune Master (C-rank).


    I paused, uncertain how to react to Samantha’s suggestion. Are you saying you will turn me into a cannon?


    <Essentially,> Samantha said. <Hear me out. First of all, as a C-rank Rune Pattern, this will come with dozens of other sub-patterns, which will include an on/off switch. I am confident we can complete this rune pattern perfectly, with no danger to you, and also with a minor adjustment you will be able to deactivate the Concealment Rune Pattern when desired, although I recommend you keep it up at all times, so that people can’t read your mind>


    <That’s obviously just a side benefit. The real benefit to this kind of thing is much harder to explain.  This is essentially a work around for your class restrictions. You can’t cast spells normally, and you can’t use Martial Energy, which is a huge limitation to your class.  But with this, you become the cannon, and as long as you have mana beads and shards to provide the power and attunement, you will be able to cast spells. This cannon would give you power similar to Dawnbreaker’s Martial Energy Beam that you saw when she was fighting the Gravity Leech.  Just like how Dawnbreaker could control the density and size of the beam the cannon has all kinds of settings so that you can decide if you want a wide beam of destruction, or a pinpointed beam that focuses all the Mana Crystal’s energy at one point.>


    <This is all on top of the obvious benefit,> Samantha continued. <Once you have access to the right materials, you will be able to build these C-rank Mana Cannons to equip the various cities that you want to protect.  This is a huge strategic asset.>


    Here’s a thought, I said.  I could tell Samantha was excited about this. Whenever I try criticizing your ideas, you’re always quick to fire back. So here’s my question: What are the biggest downsides to this?  Why would buying this make me unhappy?


    Samantha was quiet for a few seconds. <Well, there are some obvious downsides.  Mana Shards and Mana Crystals are both expensive, and this is basically like burning money. But you do have your personal mine, which is why I’m suggesting this in the first place. This downside actually has an upside, which is that if you sell the mana cannon to other cities, those cities will have an even greater desire for your mana crystals from your mine, which will make you even richer.>


    This isn’t a job interview, I shot back. You don’t have to turn your flaw back into your greatest strength.  Next issue.


    <Alright,> Samantha said, mimicking clearing her throat in mild embarrassment. <Well, there is also the obvious downside of this being a C-rank Blueprint, which means it is very difficult to make, in practice, because C-rank materials don’t even seem to be naturally occurring in your world yet.  So really, this is a flaw that every C-rank blueprint has, but it can be mitigated by the fact that we can downgrade the cannon to a D-rank cannon.>


    Next, I thought, immediately. And stop trying to run out the clock.


    Our ten minutes to choose our item were rapidly disappearing, and I was starting to realize Samantha was delaying in order to force me to choose this option before the time ran out on our access to the Treasury.


    <Well, the main reason you won’t be happy about it is a natural consequence that I was just describing,> Samantha said. <I’m sure you could think about it yourself, if you took just a few seconds—>


    Just fucking tell me.


    <Alright,> Samantha said. <Unfortunately, your body is not made up of C-rank material, which means there is bound to be some backlash if you were to use the cannon to its full effect. Naturally, you can put loads of points into Physical Defense when you the mana cannon, but even then, if you use it at full power, you could expect a small amount of pain, and even to take some damage.


    What kind of pain are we talking about, and how much damage? I was acutely aware that we were running out of time to make our selection.


    <Well, let me put it this way,> Samantha said. <If you were to try to fire a Mana Orb, you would die. If you were to try to fire a Mana Crystal, you would want to around 100 Physical Defense in order to stay safe. But at this point, that’s not prohibitively expensive.  If you were to try to fire a Mana Shard, you could probably do it, it would just deal a bit of damage and you would feel a bit of pain.>


    <Think if it this way. Don’t you want to be Iron Man?>