"So what's that zero above your head represent?"
"Well, like there was that one time my giant robot gopher went rogue ..."
"Why do you have a giant robot gopher?"
"Long story. I shouldn't go off on a tangent. As I was saying, the tracker showed the gopher was going for the dam above town, one mile upstream. So I was sitting there, looking at my robodog, thinking what to do? What to do? Then I remembered my rocket sled, and told robodog, 'Go Get em!'"
"Why do you have a rocket sled?"
"I was thinking of entering the Iditarod."
"That's for dogsleds."
"Robodog, yeah?"
"I don't think the judges would buy that."
"Yeah? Fido would have a few choice words with them."
"Dogs don't talk."
"Well. At any rate. I revved up the sled, Fido jumped on, and off they went."
"You too?"
"Ah no I stayed behind. Fido was at the wheel."
"Sleds don't have wheels."
"Sooo, I get out my binoculars and watch robodog's progress. Flames out in my direction, along the ground off towards the dam. There was the giant gopher on top of the dam, heading towards the middle, getting ready to start digging. The sled started lifting off the ground, aiming at the dam and the gopher. The sled lifted just over the dam and hit the gopher smack on right before it started chewing. They all took off into the sky and blew up in a giant fireball about a football field behind the dam. Over the reservoir. Total loss of the sled, robodog and gopher, but nothing important was hurt."
"You lost the robodog?"
"Well, in a sense. The body was blown to bits. But I've got backups, and it was streaming experience as it went. I've rebuilt it. Robodog considered that a successful venture and would do it again."
"Okay, okay, okay. But. What's that got to do with the big fat zero above your head?"
"Number of towns destroyed. Zero."
"Well I'd hope so."
"Yes. But I have to work at it, see."
This was first posted to reddit/r/WritingPrompts in response to the prompt "Everybody has their own Number that reflects something specific about their lives. It could be the number of steps walked or number of hands shaken. Your Number is still a zero."