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.)

◇◇◇

◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.

◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)