6 Starting Personal Training

"You must have gone through a lot,"

She said while patting his back softly.

"It's just death. No big deal," Dennis responded.

"You stormed off after that incident, and everyone was worried after we heard you went to Scientist Belmos."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Dennis had a confused expression.

"Do you not remember what happened?" She inquired.

"What happened?" Dennis questioned.

Her words were baffling to him. Was there really something he didn't remember?

"Did you forget what happened?" She questioned once more.

"No... I don't even know what you are talking about." Dennis replied with a sheepish giggle, but internally, questions were running through his mind.

There are memories I don't recall? What incident could she be talking about?

"Okay, it's not a problem. The good thing is that you are back, the second selection is coming but I don't want you to wear yourself out. Don't do too much, okay?. See, even if your performance is lacklustre, you will still pass," Instructor Anne said with a smile.

...

Dennis's expression turned blank.

"I'm sorry..."

"Huh?"

"I won't be able to do that..."

"What do you mean?" She questioned once more.

"I don't plan to remain lacklustre, neither do I plan to stay the bottom feeder of the group. I don't care that my body is weak, I shall beat those odds. Instructor Anne, watch me, I'll become the best modified combatant," Dennis stated with a firm tone.

"Ehh, did you finally go crazy?"

"You realize your teammates have inhumane physical capabilities," Instructor Anne folded her arms, and her boobs did a soft jiggle.

She might be fond of Dennis, but she definitely doesn't believe he can beat the odds... I believe she's a realist and doesn't like to pretend that things are different from what they are.

"Where did this whole newfound motivation come from?" She questioned.

"Because I'm tired of being the bottom feeder," Dennis still had the pride of his previous life as one of the most decorated field officers.

He couldn't let a bunch of kids outdo him.

Instructor Anne chuckled a little before responding.

"Just a month ago, you were telling me you don't mind as long as you can maintain your place and earn enough for your brother."

This Dennis guy has such a weak mentality, but I commend him for having enough bravery to apply for the program. That's right... I shall take things from here.

"Well, things have changed." Dennis stood his ground with a darting glare.

'I have never seen him look this determined. Maybe he is serious.' She thought.

"Hmm... since you seem determined, I will help you. But to be honest, I don't expect much from you.

Don't get me wrong, okay? These guys, the nine in Squad 1, are the strongest out of two hundred and fifty modified combatants in the program.

You, on the other hand, are below the top two hundred.

Do not forget that in terms of physical attributes, you and these people are too far apart."

Dennis' lips curved upwards.

"Instructor Anne. I like challenges."

With a sharp gaze, he excused himself with the smirk still plastered on his face.

If he was going to challenge the strength of the others, he was going to start from the bottom so he needed to train as well as make proper research about the one considered to be the ninth strongest in the team.

Malik Nonek.

He was a 6'3" tall 18-year-old boy with buzz-cut black hair and a well-toned muscular body. His skin was a deep, rich milky color, and his eyes bore a dark intensity.

Malik was a quiet and introspective young man. Despite his imposing size and strength, he was a gentle soul at heart and had a deep respect for all living things.

He grew up in a tough neighbourhood before the earth-shifting incident, where he had to learn how to defend himself at an early age.

He was involved in kickboxing, which made him a formidable young fighter.

'Pretty good, but he has probably never killed a person before,' Dennis thought as he read the report from the watch on his wrist.

He had just looked up information on the least strong person in the squad since the facility didn't hide the information of the Modified Combatants.

Whether they did it so they could understand each other better since they would be fighting battles together in the future or whether it was to show their skills... Dennis had no idea which it was, but he didn't mind so long as it helped him.

Dennis had decided he would train his body the way he recalled he did when he was in the military.

Along the line of training himself, he would challenge the squad members one after the other as he got stronger to test his improvement, starting from the least strong.

He began taking a tour around the facility with the help of Dennis's memory.

There was hardly any person roaming the grounds. Even Darrin, who had left the room earlier, was nowhere to be found– well, that wasn't his concern.

After a while, he headed to one of the personal training chambers within the facility.

The instant Dennis stepped into the training chamber, what appeared in his line of sight was a spacious room, filled with rows of workout machines; racks of dumbells and barbells as well as other functional fitness equipment.

To him, this looked more like a gym than a training chamber. However, he understood that there were other sophisticated pieces of equipment available.

He paused his steps as the soft clanging of metal drifted into his eardrums. The bright fluorescent lights that illuminated every corner gave away the location of this individual responsible for the metallic clangs.

Dennis could spot a tall yellow-skinned young adult getting up from a particular position.

"Hello, Dennis. I heard you died. You must be fine now, I guess," He spoke with a baritone voice.

Dennis felt he would be a millionaire by now if he had a dollar for every time someone mentioned his death. He paused for an instant as his eyes ran down the boy's broad shoulders and chiselled chest to his muscles that rippled with every slight movement.

His well-defined abs and powerful legs were donned. The camo pants hugged his thighs very tightly.

'More mass than inbuilt core strength, that's why he's in ninth place,' Dennis thought.

"Dennis?" Malik called out after noticing Dennis's silence.

"Hello Malik," Dennis responded after snapping out of his reverie.

"Did you finally decide to work on your body?"

"Yes."

Dennis nodded.

He stood to his feet and tapped Dennis's left shoulder.

"Trust me, you made the right decision,"

He stated with a vibrant smile, displaying his neatly arranged white teeth.

He was a head taller than Dennis, but Dennis was not in any way intimidated.

Even in his past life, he had taken down people who were way taller than Malik. However, from Malik's words, it was obvious that Dennis never visited the workout chamber.

So he only settled for daily drills then...

Dennis realized another reason why old Dennis was quite the weakling.

"Follow me... let me show you some of my kickboxing moves," Malik voiced while dragging Dennis along with him.

"Huh?" Dennis wasn't interested in this, but seeing how Malik was persuasive and nice, he decided there was no harm in it.

The dude was willing to teach him moves for him to get stronger when most of his teammates didn't really care.

From that moment onwards, Dennis would visit the workout chamber daily and train alongside Malik, who still liked showing him moves. Dennis was well skilled in combat, so they were moves he already knew and even perfected, but he pretended to be unaware so as not to arouse suspicions.

Meanwhile, he would continue to train there even after Malik had returned to his room and did his best to go beyond the limit of his current body, which was preventing him from trying a lot of combat moves.

As the days passed, Dennis was slowly beginning to feel his body improve, especially with the combination of the daily drills.

Not to mention that Instructor Anne brought up a timetable of daily challenges he would undergo and supervised him personally. The days would end with Dennis in a tiresome state as he would be almost on the brink of collapse due to his weak body.

During all of this, Dennis was still trying to figure out what pieces of his memories he might be forgetting, but unfortunately, he didn't recall anything else... yet.

....

Over A Week Later

Everyone was instructed to gather for lectures after the day's drills.

The lectures weren't something that happened often, but the modified combatants always looked forward to it.

Teachings on the extraterrestrial lifeforms that had been identified to touch down on earth, their motives, their strength, weaknesses, and how to engage if one was to ever encounter them.

While intelligence wasn't available for every alien lifeform in every category, they made sure to learn the available ones.

There was also a simulation training where they got to use the UVS prototype suit– which was like a minimized version of the real thing.