After returning to the Goddess of Dawn, Ethan didn't immediately activate the teleportation.
He first took a stroll around the ship, then brought out a deck chair and lay in the sun for a while. He ordered the Goddess of Dawn to sail leisurely across the vast ocean, as if he had completely forgotten his plans. He looked more like someone on vacation.
"Are you planning to relax a bit?"
"No."
Ethan lay back comfortably, wearing sunglasses.
"Just thinking about the next course of action."
"Haven't you already decided which world to go to?"
Ada was very curious about how Ethan obtained information about the target world. No matter how she investigated, it seemed only Ethan had access to this secret. No one else knew a thing.
"Yes, but the specific steps require careful thought."
The Mummy world didn't seem particularly dangerous. Imhotep was indeed a powerful priest, but as long as he wasn't resurrected, that era—right after the end of World War I—was relatively backward.
They were heading to Egypt, which at that time wasn't at the center of global civilization. Compared to the world powers, it lagged far behind.
A backward place came with many inconveniences, but also some benefits.
No one would care about Ethan's identity. As long as he had money, almost any problem could be solved.
Hamunaptra was located in a remote desert. No matter how much noise he caused, it wouldn't matter. There were no military satellites in the sky back then, so he didn't have to worry about being photographed and becoming a person of interest to any country.
With his current abilities, Ethan wasn't afraid of being targeted, but dealing with the trouble would be annoying. That's why he had remained restrained in most worlds.
"So, what have you come up with so far?"
Ethan smiled but didn't answer. A lot of information was not suitable to reveal, especially to Ada, an elite spy.
It was probably in her nature to want to get to the bottom of things. Since boarding the ship, she had been trying hard to figure everything out. Ethan had long noticed that she was particularly concerned about how he knew so much about other worlds.
As for this secret, he might share it with truly trustworthy companions in the future, but not now.
The plan for the Mummy world? He had been recalling the entire plot of that world.
Although his mental strength had been enhanced and he could recall memories from his past life clearly, if not actively used, these memories were like clutter stored in the corner of a warehouse—they took time and effort to retrieve and organize before they could be put to use.
The story of The Mummy wasn't complicated. That was typical of commercial blockbusters.
A relatively simple main storyline, clear character relationships, and dazzling special effects.
Given Ethan's current situation, the benefit was that he didn't need to waste time sorting through complex plots or character relationships. He just needed to analyze which parts of the story would be most useful to him.
In simple terms, what was going to happen in the Mummy world was this: Evelyn Carnahan, a female archaeologist, received a key and a map from her brother Jonathan Carnahan. This led her to set her sights on the legendary City of the Dead, Hamunaptra. In search of this mythic pyramid, she embarked on a miraculous adventure.
Initially, Ethan thought that as long as he intercepted Jonathan and took the key and map in advance, Evelyn would become irrelevant. After all, she didn't contribute much in the entire plot aside from causing trouble.
But then he embarrassingly realized a problem: he couldn't do without Evelyn. Both of the scriptures he needed were written in ancient Egyptian.
Ethan knew many languages, but ancient Egyptian wasn't one of them.
When he had prioritized language learning, he had taken into account that he might travel to multiple worlds and had focused on the ones most likely to be useful.
Later, he even prepared to learn the magic of Kamar-Taj, which required studying more obscure languages—but even those didn't include ancient Egyptian.
Not only had he never learned it, but his collection didn't include any books related to ancient Egyptian. Even if he wanted to study it now, he didn't have the materials or textbooks.
"So Evelyn still needs to come along."
Alternatively, he could find Evelyn in advance and pay her to teach him ancient Egyptian. With Ethan's current learning ability, it wouldn't take too long.
The difficulty lay in not knowing the exact time of his arrival. If it was a bit earlier, it would be fine—he could intercept the key and map ahead of time.
But if it was later or just as the plot began, then it would be too late to learn the language. Stealing the key wouldn't be hard, but who would teach him ancient Egyptian then?
"There seems to be an archaeologist in that group of Americans."
Ethan lay there, analyzing the various possibilities. After a while, he got up again, stretched lazily, and looked at Ada, who was standing beside him.
"Get a good night's sleep. We're leaving first thing in the morning. Once we get there, there won't be another chance to rest comfortably."
Only Ada was going with him this time. After fulfilling Old Charles's request, Logan finally relaxed. The burden on his heart had lifted, and he felt much more at ease.
At the same time, he didn't want to travel again, especially after hearing the next world was Egypt. He wasn't looking forward to suffering in the desert, so he said he would stay on the ship.
Loki wasn't coming either. He was just waiting for Ethan to finish handling all these small matters and take him home. He was looking forward to giving his father and brother a big surprise upon returning and didn't want to waste time in these messy worlds.
Selene had no interest in a year-long desert trip, and Annette even less so. What she cared about was whether Ethan would bring back anything fun. Unfortunately, last time in the X-Men world, Ethan hadn't brought back any mutant genes.
After a good night's rest, the only ones setting off with Ethan were Ada—and someone who claimed he wasn't coming.
"I hope this trip will be worthwhile for you."
Last time, Ada had done almost nothing, just stayed in the mansion feeling dazed. Her abilities had no room to be used, and she'd been completely miserable.
This time should be better, right?
Looking at the surrounding environment, with its dryness, sand, and scorching heat, the difference from the humid atmosphere on the ship was stark. She felt like a large portion of moisture in her body had instantly evaporated.
"No wonder Selene didn't want to come."
Even normal people wouldn't like the hot, dry, dusty desert environment, let alone a vampire. Cairo at this time wasn't a clean or modern city either. The mixed smells in the air were far from pleasant.
"But Logan, didn't you say you weren't coming?"
Logan's sense of smell was sharper than a normal person's, so the strange odor in the air made him feel even more uncomfortable. He lit a cigar to ease the irritation. Maybe that's why he always smoked cigars—his sense of smell was too sensitive?
"I really didn't plan to come. I just didn't notice where I was stepping and accidentally stood inside the magic circle."
Ethan shook his head, speechless. Logan might not have intended to come, but when he heard it was Egypt and Ethan mentioned possibly facing powerful priests, he must have gotten a bit uneasy and decided to follow.
Even if he couldn't defeat a supernatural priest, he believed he could help Ethan by relying on his immortality.
Whether to delay the enemy or help Ethan escape, Logan figured he could manage.
Compared to Ada, who had just joined and clearly had her own agenda, Logan believed he was far more reliable.
Ethan knew why Logan had followed. He patted this oldest companion of his, then looked around carefully.
"Seems like our luck's not bad. We didn't land in ancient Egypt three thousand years ago."
(Note: Previously mentioned "3000 years ago" was inaccurate. The correct timeline should be over 1700 BC, which is indeed more than 3000 years before the plot begins.)
If they had ended up back then, they would probably have had to go up against the Egyptian dynasty directly—Ethan couldn't think of another way to get his hands on those two scriptures.
Stealing was certainly an option, but it would inevitably lead to conflict.
Landing in 1923 meant he didn't need to confront an entire country. His competitors were just a troublesome archaeologist, a combat veteran, a greedy thief skilled in stealing…
Ethan asked around briefly, got directions to the Cairo Museum, and then headed there with Logan and Ada.
Although he knew it was 1923, it was still hard to pinpoint exactly when in the year. He'd only know after meeting Evelyn.
What he hadn't expected was that when he finally found the Cairo Museum and reached the curator's office, he saw Evelyn and her brother Jonathan kneeling on the floor, frantically patting out flames on a burning map.
Ethan was speechless. How could the timing be this coincidental? He had just been thinking about finding this pair ahead of time to take the map and key, thus avoiding the need to find Rick O'Connell as a guide.
And yet, as soon as he found them, he witnessed the most crucial part of the map going up in flames.
Of course, he knew the museum curator had deliberately burned the map. The curator, Terence Bey, was also one of the Pharaoh's guards. His duty was to ensure Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, was never discovered by outsiders.
Looking smug at having just destroyed the map, Terence Bey noticed Ethan and the others. He asked their purpose with a self-satisfied smile, only to hear the exact words he didn't want to hear:
"I want to go to Hamunaptra."
(To be continued.)