DOTM: Chapter 566/568

Chapter 566: The Hulk is gone?

As Ethan was preparing to depart for the Starship Troopers world to inform Annette and the others about his progress, Banner sought him out again.

"Decided?"

"Yes."

Bruce Banner had finally made the decision. He didn't want to let his other personality go mad endlessly. If he could absorb and assimilate it, making it controllable, it would undoubtedly solve many problems.

"You need to understand one thing. I can help you absorb and assimilate the Hulk, but that doesn't mean you won't have trouble. As long as you can still transform... no, to be precise, as long as you are still this super-intelligent Bruce Banner, your troubles will never decrease."

Bruce Banner's own value is not much lower than the Hulk's. In many cases, Bruce Banner himself is more valuable because he is one of the smartest people in the world, one of the top scientists in the Marvel universe, and possesses almost as much black technology knowledge as Tony Stark.

"Can I take that as a compliment?"

"You don't need to take it as one, it is a compliment."

"Does it need to be done in a special place?"

"No need. This kind of thing is not new to me."

He had easily helped the Howards merge their spiritual bodies before, and Bruce Banner's situation was slightly more complex, but only slightly.

During the fusion process, he discovered that Bruce Banner's spiritual body was inherently prone to splitting, which meant that even without the Hulk or the gamma rays, Bruce Banner himself was highly likely to develop dissociative identity disorder.

After Banner fully woke up, Ethan explained the situation to him.

"So the root of everything is that my own mental state is unstable."

"You could say that."

According to the settings in the comic universe, there are many explanations for Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk, due to different creators, with almost every new author tinkering with the settings.

In one particular work, it was revealed that Bruce Banner was abused by his father as a child, and the tendency for split personality already existed then, with this part of his personality being the fundamental reason for the Hulk's birth.

Ethan wasn't sure if the movie universe adopted this setting, nor was he interested in asking about Banner's childhood. He simply confirmed that Bruce's own mental state had underlying issues, and he needed to eliminate this hidden danger, otherwise, when the Hulk mutated in the future, there was no guarantee he wouldn't split into new personalities.

"Then what should I do?"

"I will teach you a special technique for training mental strength, which can help you better condense your mental energy and completely resolve this hidden danger."

Hearing that there was a way to treat it, Banner became very excited and thanked Ethan repeatedly.

After his excitement subsided, he realized that he shouldn't have been so emotional. Did he use too much strength just now?

Ethan smiled and looked at the hand he was holding. After merging with the Hulk, Bruce Banner would be affected by his main body to some extent, such as becoming stronger and healthier.

Of course, this amount of strength had no effect on Ethan. Bruce Banner couldn't possibly hurt Ethan.

"After all, the Hulk has existed independently for so many years. He is not just pure spiritual energy with nothing else. So, after absorbing the Hulk, you will be affected to some extent."

Fortunately, the Hulk hadn't developed a complete personality yet, so besides Banner becoming easily excitable, there wouldn't be a drastic change in personality.

Furthermore, Bruce Banner needed to learn how to properly master his new power, which would avoid a lot of trouble.

To teach Bruce Banner, Ethan slightly delayed his plans and was now helping Bruce Banner better adapt to his strength on the island.

"Is this the Hulk's power?"

Looking at the green giant before him, who had a normal person's build but was taller with bulging muscles, Ethan shook his head directly. "You're only using a small fraction of the Hulk's power."

The Hulk's appearance is quite different from that of a human, but Bruce Banner in this form is just a human with a slightly strange skin color and a taller build.

Even his appearance still retains Banner's original look, and the strength of this form of the Hulk is much less. Although his agility and flexibility are closer to the original version, and he retains Dr. Banner's original intelligence and rationality, because he is overly rational, although this form retains the Hulk's characteristic of becoming stronger the angrier he gets, Banner will probably find it difficult to utilize this talent.

"But I feel very powerful already."

"This is an illusion caused by a sudden significant increase in power. Many people lose their true nature when they suddenly gain power and do many things they would never have done originally."

Ethan shook his head. The current Bruce Banner is still far from being a true warrior.

"If you can't adjust your mindset properly, then you will never truly become strong."

However, Bruce Banner doesn't want to become strong. He just hopes he won't occasionally turn into an out-of-control green monster. This kind of thinking will likely be difficult to change unless something stimulates him.

Ethan is not his teacher, nor his parents. Helping Banner out is because he is in a good mood and Banner is not annoying. It's not necessary for Dr. Banner to become an excellent warrior.

So, after teaching Banner how to condense his mental strength and resolve the hidden danger of being prone to splitting, he only taught him a few methods for training his strength. If Banner had the inclination, he could slowly and completely master the Hulk's power through diligent training.

At that time, a terrifying being would be born, possessing Banner's intelligence, the Hulk's formidable strength, and the ability to continuously increase his combat power through anger.

However, looking at the situation, Banner won't reach that point without some stimulation.

Banner's willingness to be easily defeated by Ethan after a few simple sparring sessions without any complaint, and instead being happy that he could control the reaction of this power, confirms this point.

"Did I just kill the Hulk? Will Nick Fury cause trouble for me when he finds out?"

After thinking for a moment, Ethan decided it didn't matter what that one-eyed man thought. Ethan now had the capital to do whatever he wanted.

Unhappy? Come and fight me.

Moreover, although Nick Fury gives the Avengers and other superheroes various preferential treatments and has high hopes for them, he has always been trying to find ways to cultivate stronger combat power in anticipation of eventually replacing these superheroes who are too individualistic. Ethan bringing Maria Hill has already provided him with such a possibility, so he seems to have no right to be unhappy with him.

After giving a brief explanation, Ethan stepped onto the teleportation platform. Looking at the platform beneath his feet emitting a familiar yet strange blue light, Ethan carefully sensed the energy fluctuations and operational trajectory beneath his feet, going over almost every detail.

When he came back to his senses, he was standing in a dark alley in the Starship Troopers world.

Ethan left the alley and looked around. He was unfamiliar with this world and didn't know where he was.

"The landing location needs optimization. It seems too random."

From beginning to end, he did not use his magic to interfere with the teleportation in any way. A random landing spot is not a good situation.

Even more troublesome was the subsequent problem. After contacting Annette and Selene, Ethan learned that he had landed six months after he last left.

This meant that the time point of this teleportation was not accurate enough. He had only been busy for just over a month on the Artemis, but six months had passed here.

According to his previous adjustments, the time in the two worlds should have been completely synchronized. This proves that there are significant problems with the teleportation platform that need to be resolved.

Using teleportation, he arrived at Selene's villa, where Logan and Betty were also waiting.

Annette wasn't here. She was busy at the company.

After six months of adjustments, the Heavy Sword rifle has been finalized, and they are now working overtime to mass-produce it to meet the Federation's first large order and complete the military's widespread re-equipment.

It was precisely because the military needed to replace weapons that soldiers, after finishing their previous missions, were basically in a state of rest and recuperation, gradually heading to nearby bases, or even returning directly to Earth for re-equipment.

Logan also returned during this re-equipment period. He had applied for discharge. Although the military tried hard to retain him, Logan still chose to leave. He had nothing to be nostalgic about, and he had no interest in being a general, let alone just being promoted to lieutenant.

Betty's situation was similar. As a top warship piloting talent in the military, applying for discharge was even more troublesome than for a regular soldier like Logan. However, both Ada and Selene had enough ways to help Betty get rid of those troubles, so she also successfully returned to Earth, waiting for Ethan's next arrival.

"Jonathan and O'Connell are still on the front lines. Their units are re-equipping directly at the front this time, so they won't be coming back... Even if they wanted to apply for discharge, they'd have to wait until next time."

There was no need to ask about Imhotep and Anck-su-namun. Ethan received another batch of faith power and, as usual, accepted it and returned some to Imhotep. From this, he could tell that Imhotep was doing well.

After explaining the situation with the teleportation platform to these few people, those who wanted to go back would leave with him this time. He should be able to solve the problems with the teleportation platform by the next time he came.

"Do you think it's better to set up a teleportation platform in this world, or equip individuals with location devices and teleport you back from the Artemis?"

"The latter."

Ada, who suddenly appeared from the void, gave a suggestion that everyone agreed with.

"It's safer."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 567: I Want to Go Home

Not only was the hidden security higher, but for these crew members, being summonable by the spaceship at any time also meant their own safety was greatly increased.

In necessary situations, they could completely teleport and retreat. This meant that infiltration actions that previously required hesitation could now be done without delay.

Of course, this anti-summon retreat method was not without its drawbacks. It could only unilaterally authorize teleportation. If something happened to the Artemis or the teleportation platform malfunctioned, these people would be unable to return to provide support.

"Unless we can completely occupy and rule this world, we are still outsiders, and it's better to remain sufficiently vigilant."

Ada had done well in this world, but this didn't mean she wouldn't encounter trouble or danger again, or even more danger than before. Of course, this was Ada's living environment, and she was quite used to it. The comfortable and leisurely life she had on Ethan's ship these past few years made her forget the feeling of those days a little. She even spent some time re-adapting to this rhythm of life.

"Okay, then when I come next time, I will equip each of you with a personal teleportation positioning device. Once activated, the Artemis will receive the signal and directly summon you back to the spaceship."

The theory behind this thing was not complicated, and Ethan had long mastered the specific knowledge. However, it involved inter-planar summoning, and he was not personally casting the spell, so he could not adjust it according to the situation. Therefore, it would take some time to ensure these devices worked properly.

After chatting with everyone for a while and understanding their situations, this time, including Ada, Betty, and Logan, three people would leave with him.

"You're not staying?"

"I don't have anything to do here for the time being. Cherry Military Industry is on the right track, and they need to develop steadily and discreetly from now on. Selene can handle occasional problems."

Ada's main job during this time was to intercept intelligence in advance, eliminating threats to Cherry Military Industry early, and by the way, collecting various technical data from this world. This was her old profession, so she was more comfortable doing it than anyone else. Three months ago, she had already obtained all the technical data she could steal.

Currently, Cherry Military Industry only had one Heavy Sword rifle on the surface and was slowly developing a new type of exoskeleton power armor, but in reality, it possessed a large amount of high-end technology from this world. If there were trustworthy individuals among the researchers, Cherry Military Industry could fully begin researching and mastering these technologies.

Now, these technologies could only be taken back to the Artemis by Ada, and at the same time, bring back some technical data from the Artemis when she came next time.

Because developing in this world was a decision made after arriving here, everyone did not make any preparations in advance, nor did they prepare various technical data in advance.

Ethan did bring back some Iron Monger data this time. This thing was actually just a design idea. With the technical capabilities of this world, it could be easily copied. Of course, some details still needed to be slowly researched and tested. The advantage of Cherry Military Industry was that they had a complete and mature design plan, and only needed to make slight adjustments based on the technology of this world. For example, the most important power system for this weapon.

"Some functions can be adjusted. The Iron Monger we make doesn't need to be able to fly high like a rocket, it only needs to maintain a certain propulsion capability so that it can land stably when falling from a high place. This way, the Iron Monger can even be air-dropped."

"You don't need to say that, I can think of it too."

Annette was originally a biology and virus expert, but she had so much free time on the ship. When she wasn't busy, she studied. Considering the nature of Ethan's team, she focused on catching up on a lot of military and weapon knowledge. She could also think of this level of modification and adjustment.

"Then we'll go first. When we come next time, we'll bring you more technical data."

The Artemis recorded a lot of technical data mastered by Tony Stark, including scientific and technological knowledge from many advanced civilizations collected in the Marvel world, as well as various weapon data collected bit by bit by Ethan, and even some of Tony's armor data. Of course, this data was outdated for Tony. This man who was constantly upgrading his armor, almost every set of armor became outdated within a month of its creation.

As for these outdated technologies, if others wanted them? Heh, are you awake?

Ethan's situation was different. Although Ethan was constantly finding things for Tony to do, he always brought Tony some new technologies each time. These new technologies were also of interest to Tony and could be considered payment for work. In addition, their relationship was good, and Tony didn't care about giving away some technologies he didn't need. The most important thing was that he knew Ethan wouldn't take his technology and run away and turn his back on him.

After returning to the Artemis, he didn't rush to adjust and correct the teleportation platform, but instead took a few people on a tour of the entire ship.

Logan knew the general layout when he followed Ethan to retrieve the Prometheus, but Tony made significant changes to the entire ship, which could be considered a new ship.

After allocating the rooms, Logan also met the radiant Banner.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I helped him solve the Hulk problem."

After briefly describing what he did, Logan understood why Banner was like this. Anyone could see that he was in a very good mood.

"It's a pity I didn't meet you earlier."

He thought of an old friend, who also had another personality hidden within her body and caused a lot of disaster. Although this history had completely disappeared due to some magical experiences, it still remained deep in his memory. After all, she was someone he loved and who died by his hand.

Ethan saw his expression and knew what he was thinking, and could only comfort him. "Don't think that way. Her situation is completely different from Banner's. Even I wouldn't have a better way to handle it."

The Phoenix Force was much more troublesome than Banner. However, in the reversed timeline, the Dark Phoenix could already control her power, and it seemed unnecessary for him to intervene.

After arranging accommodation for the few people, he also took them to meet the new arrival, Leah.

"A little girl?"

Betty didn't have any special feelings, but Ada and Logan looked at Ethan strangely.

They had known Ethan longer and knew that he actually had a headache when it came to children and wasn't interested in them. Anyway, they had never heard that he wanted to have a child with Diana.

From some casual chats, they also knew that he himself didn't want children. It seemed he really didn't like children.

Why would someone who disliked children bring a child back?

"Did your taste change?"

"Leah's situation is special."

After telling them about Leah's general situation, they understood why Ethan brought this child back. It sounded quite tragic.

Compared to Ada, Logan understood Ethan's behavior more, after all, he was also rescued by Ethan because of the reason of being too tragic.

"So you want to change her future?"

"I like her, and I have the ability to do so, so is there anything wrong with doing this?"

"I think your approach is very correct."

A kind and well-behaved child became a tool for some people to carry out their schemes, and finally became a vessel for the demon king. It was even impossible to determine whether her own soul was still alive. Such an end was indeed too tragic.

If they knew about this situation, they wouldn't stand by and do nothing either.

But to be honest, Ethan was definitely the most suitable person to do this kind of thing, because he could solve the hidden dangers on Leah, teach her rich magic knowledge, make her a true strong person, and take her destiny into her own hands.

"Learning how to be a chess player, no matter how bad a chess player is, it's better than being a chess piece."

In the past, Ada wavered between being a chess player and a chess piece. She always tried hard to become a chess player, but reality was cruel, you couldn't do it just because you wanted to.

Meeting Ethan completely changed her life. Now she lived happily. The employment Ethan mentioned back then had no meaning now.

She believed that Leah's future would also be very good.

"Why are you suddenly having so many life insights?"

"Maybe the life I've been living recently has made me think of the past."

Ethan nodded. He didn't plan to continue this conversation. He wasn't very concerned about what Ada's life was like before. Anyway, if she wanted to talk, he would be happy to be a listener. If she didn't want to talk, he would just pretend these things didn't exist.

After introducing each other, Ethan returned to the teleportation room to get busy again. He wanted to solve the problem with the teleportation platform as soon as possible. He didn't like this kind of thing dragging on for half a year or a year.

However, before he could go into seclusion, Betty came looking for him again.

"Something's up."

"Well, I don't know how to say it?"

"Just say it directly. You know I don't really like beating around the bush and guessing."

Betty nodded, took a deep breath, and made her request, hoping Ethan could agree.

Her request was not a big deal, nor was it surprising. It could even be said to be human nature. Betty wanted to go home and see if her relatives were still alive.

"That's not a big deal. The question is, can you determine the exact location?"

"Probably... I think so?"

(To be continued.)

Chapter 568: The Same

Betty wanting to go home didn't surprise Ethan. The trouble was that they couldn't easily determine the location.

Neither the location of Betty's home nor their current location was easy to ascertain.

Based on the information from the training ground's control room, they could only roughly infer some details, and they didn't know how far the training ground had been pushed from its original area.

To send Betty home, they first needed to find the star system where the training ground was originally located, then determine the specific coordinates before they could proceed.

Because Betty wanted to go home, everyone on the ship gathered in the control room to discuss how they could help fulfill her wish.

Having lived together, Betty wasn't someone with an unpleasant personality. She had already begun to integrate into the group.

In such a team, helping each other was quite normal.

Moreover, Ethan didn't have any specific destination in mind. The Artemis was currently just heading in a random direction, preparing to leave the current star system first, and then decide which direction to explore.

Now everyone was gathered around the conference table at the back of the control room, where the holographic projection displayed the surrounding star system and marked the Artemis's current position.

"According to the records in the training ground, it was originally flying towards the star, then after being hit by asteroids and meteorites, it approached the Purple Star, and was finally captured by the Purple Star's gravity, orbiting it."

But just because they had determined the location of the star and the Purple Star didn't mean they could deduce the correct direction in reverse.

Because these two celestial bodies were also constantly moving.

Although Ethan and the others hadn't left this star system yet, based on current observations, this star wasn't a rogue star system drifting in the vast, empty dark universe, but a member of a massive galaxy, similar to the Solar System in the Milky Way.

"Through normal means, we would need to calculate the positions of the Purple Star and this star when the training ground arrived in this star system, based on their current trajectories, and only then could we roughly estimate the direction the training ground flew from."

"We would even need to conduct long-term measurements and calculations to determine our precise location within the entire large galaxy."

According to the plan proposed by Luna, if they were lucky, they might quickly reach an accurate conclusion and find the star system where the training ground was originally located.

If they were unlucky, for instance, if the training ground changed direction multiple times when it was blown away, or even jumped to another galaxy through a wormhole, then the possibility of sending Betty home would be infinitely close to zero.

"If it's that difficult..."

Betty knew it was difficult, but she didn't expect it to be so troublesome. Although she had been living on the ship for a while, she always felt a bit different from the others, often feeling a bit reserved, so listening to Luna's explanation, she already wanted to give up on her idea.

"It's not troublesome."

Ethan waved his hand.

"Luna is talking about normal circumstances. Helping you get home would require those calculations and measurements, but don't forget who I am."

Ethan was a mage, with many miraculous abilities. Finding people across planes didn't trouble him, let alone finding Betty's family.

With Betty herself present, he could completely locate Betty's parents through blood relation.

"Ah, I forgot about that."

Ethan's abilities were too contradictory to the knowledge Betty had learned before. She rarely thought about problems from a magic perspective.

"Although we can determine the direction, it will still take quite some time to get there."

The distance was difficult to determine. This kind of spell could only provide a direction, not directly give specific coordinates, so they could only slowly fly in the direction provided by the spell.

What made Betty happy was that since the spell gave a feedback, it proved that Betty still had family alive, otherwise the spell would not have been able to be cast successfully at all.

"Although I don't know how long it will take to meet them, it's confirmed that you still have family alive."

The Artemis, improved from the Prometheus, could travel long distances at speeds infinitely close to the speed of light. Flying at this speed was very dangerous and required the ship's detection capabilities to be extremely powerful to avoid anything that could pose a threat in advance.

Now, they didn't need to worry about this point. The Artemis flying at full speed would release an energy shield, and anything it collided with would instead be shattered by the ship.

While Ethan was using the spell to determine the direction of travel, Luna also provided the result calculated based on the existing information. Because the time was too short, this data could only be used as a reference and its accuracy could not be guaranteed.

Seeing that the data provided by Luna and the result given by Ethan's spell had a significant deviation, everyone at this moment trusted the captain's magic even more.

"Let's leave this star system first."

Leaving a star system was not an easy task. The seemingly empty universe was actually filled with various energies, which, like waves and storms in the ocean, created all sorts of troubles for space travelers.

If Ethan and the others had casually found a spaceship and attempted to venture into the sea of stars, their ultimate fate would likely be that they couldn't even break out of this star system with the Purple Star.

It wasn't just a matter of speed. The heat and radiation filling these cosmic spaces also caused interference with the ship's navigation, and these energies exhibited a very interesting phenomenon. The closer to the edge of the star system, the stronger the interference, like layers of shells protecting the entire star system.

To break out, in addition to having sufficient speed, it also needed to be sturdy enough to withstand the erosion of various cosmic energies.

Now, the Artemis possessed all the conditions, and after determining the course, it steadily moved towards the outside of the star system.

"The universe is truly amazing."

Banner's purpose in coming here was to personally witness and experience the wondrous universe. After the Artemis officially set sail and his own troubles were resolved, Banner spent most of his time in the cockpit, staring blankly at various detection data. In the eyes of a scientist like him, this data was displaying a world invisible to the naked eye.

Everyone understood Banner's situation and no one disturbed him. Ethan still went to repair the teleportation platform every day.

He had initially found the problem.

This teleportation platform was a copy he had made based on the space-time magic Circle he had. He only had a rough understanding of the specific functions of many of the runes within it, so it was inevitable that there would be errors and omissions when creating the teleportation platform.

This time, he organized the parts he could completely understand and then began to carefully study the specific structure and function of the remaining parts. After determining that he had a good grasp of the spatial aspects, he also found the problem.

The space-time magic Circle also contained a large number of magical structures related to the rules of time. He only had a slight understanding of this part, and to completely master it, he needed a more thorough understanding of this mysterious energy.

However, this did not prevent him from taking out some of the content for use. For example, he was able to bind the time flow of the Starship Troopers world with this magic Circle. Because this part was together with the space-time anchor points, he quickly found and confirmed its content and principle.

After some adjustments, the teleportation platform was finally completed. Ethan conducted some more tests, sent more technical data to Annette and the others, and then began to create personalized teleportation positioning devices for everyone.

As the functions of the equipment Ethan and the others used gradually increased, the items each person needed to carry seemed to be increasing as well. He started to consider whether to integrate them completely.

Submerging his entire body in the warm spring water filled with arcane energy, Ethan came to Summer Island to relax after finishing his busy work.

After the Artemis's testing was mostly complete and the sailing direction was determined, more people on the ship began to come to the island to live.

After all, except for Banner the scientist, space travel was very boring and monotonous for most people. Even Hill preferred to enjoy the sea view and feel the sea breeze when resting.

Ethan had deliberately left the arcane spring eyes on this snowy mountain specifically for this kind of hot spring filled with arcane energy. As a mage, soaking in energy-filled spring water was the proper way of life.

Of course, Ethan wasn't someone who ate alone. There were several similar arcane hot spring eyes nearby, and he just chose the largest, suitable temperature, and relatively hidden one to use.

In this hidden cave, the glow of arcane energy provided excellent illumination, ensuring there was absolutely no gloomy or terrifying feeling.

"You really know how to enjoy yourself."

A familiar voice came from behind him. Ethan didn't even need to turn around to know who had arrived.

What happened next surprised Ethan. Rustling sounds and the sound of entering the water caused Ethan to open his eyes in surprise, and then he saw... Ada in a bikini.

"Tsk."

"You seem very disappointed."

Ada was like a cat that had just pushed a glass off a table and broken it, looking like she hadn't done anything (yes, it was me who did it), narrowing her eyes and leisurely enjoying the warm spring water filled with arcane energy.

"Any normal man would be like this, right?"

Looking around, this was a relatively secluded cave, and the light emitted by the arcane energy was very soft, making the cave semi-dark. A single man and woman soaking in a hot spring together... is it a beast or worse than a beast? That is the question.

"A normal man would do more."

As Ada spoke, she suddenly threw a small piece of cloth aside, making a crisp plop sound.

"Actually, women would too."

(To be continued.)