how have you been

Hi.in what ways do u answer how have you been?thx in advance

Fine, thanks.
Pretty good, thank you.
A bit busy, actually.
OK. Had a touch of the flu last week, though.
Terrible! My dog died and someone stole my car!
etc.

can we answer:nothing much?!

No. Being is not of a muchness.

what about nothing?

Nope. It makes no sense:

A: How are you?
B: (X) Nothing. (???!)

sorry but what about nothing new? when u say that someone stole my caris right ,so nothing new may make a sense!

The question is ‘How are you?’ / ‘How have you been?’

My answers were:

Fine…
Pretty good…
A bit busy…
OK…
Terrible!..

Do you see what is the same about those answers?