Recovering Some Disturbing Memories

"Hey... Is it me, or does noodle kneecaps look a little different than usual?"

Some of the modified combatants had to take more than a couple of glances at Dennis to be sure that what they were seeing was real.

"He does seem a little different," Another one of them muttered.

Dennis noticed their gazes as he trotted forward into their midst.

There was no doubt about it. Dennis had added up a little in size.

As of yesterday, Dennis was a little shorter and slimmer.

The change was something that would have gone unnoticed if it were to be any other MC, but since Dennis was a lot thinner compared to the other Combatants, they easily noticed it.

"Could the vial have worked for him?"

This time, Dennis heard their words drift into his ears.

'The vial... I took it last night,' Dennis recalled and quickly pieced things together.

He couldn't see how he currently looked, so he was unable to confirm what the others around him were talking about.

However, Dennis did feel more energetic.

One thing he noticed from the voices in the background was the mention of, 'How did the vial work for him?'

This made Dennis think in confusion, 'Was the vial not supposed to work for Dennis?'

Amid his puzzling thoughts, one of the instructors arrived.

"Quiet!" He yelled as he stood before the two hundred and fifty MCs.

"Time for our daily 20km jog..." He voiced while tapping on a device in his grasp.

Dhiinnnnn~

"You know the drill," He added the moment a loud beep rang out.

"Yes, sir!" The MCs yelled before running forward.

The usual daily drill began, and every MC made their way forward at moderate speed.

It wasn't a race, so they weren't running at a fast pace. It was more of a stamina exercise that would usually take them around an hour to complete.

Roads were mapped out for the Modified Combatants to run through, so they were well aware of where to head the moment they arrived at the end of their present terrain.

Twenty kilometres would take an average person over three hours of nonstop movement to scale. No ordinary person could do it, yet the MCs would usually complete the trip within, and sometimes less, than an hour.

Dennis was very weak compared to the others, so it usually took him over two hours to complete his target for the day. He would always lag behind the others who would surpass him multiple times.

However, since Mark took over Dennis's body and began training, he slowly lowered the time he spent completing the first daily drill. Mark wanted to ensure that Dennis would be able to catch up with his teammates, so he focused on getting stronger.

As of yesterday, it took him around an hour and a few minutes to finish, but today was entirely different.

Dennis felt more energetic and lighter compared to the day before. For the first time, his body was letting him keep up with the others.

He could hear voices from around him muttering with confused expressions.

"Yo, Dennis. You're really on something else today, eh?" Malik approached from the side as they ran on a path amid sparse forest trees on the side.

"Hey man," Dennis greeted him back as they exchanged a fist bump.

"You keeping up. You've gotten stronger. Yosh!" Malik had an excited expression as he perked out his broad chest and let his titties dance.

"Pfft. Stop it, man," Dennis chuckled after watching Malik's titties dance. 

"How is your stamina holding up?" Malik inquired.

"Surprisingly, I feel more energetic today," Dennis responded as they continuously jogged forward.

"So the vial worked then?" Malik had a slightly astonished expression as he questioned.

"Maybe... was it not supposed to work?" Dennis inquired while furrowing his eyebrows.

"Did you forget? The vial won't work unless the human body has a certain level of strength. Your body has always rejected the vial since the start of our training months ago," Malik said with a reminiscent tone.

Dhinn~

It was like a strong force had just smashed into Dennis's head as a bunch of memories suddenly drifted into his mind.

______________

"He is too weak. The vial is being wasted on him."

"Give it to other Modified Combatants it's too precious to be wasted like this."

"Another wasted one. There is no effect."

"Why do you keep accepting the vial? You could give your batch to the rest of us instead of using it on yourself despite knowing it won't work."

"Ehh... so useless. He took it again, yet no difference,"

_________________

"Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!" Dennis paused and placed his hands on his knees as he breathed in and out profusely.

Everything around him sounded like distant static as the Modified Combatants around him dashed past.

"He has run out of steam again."

"Useless will always be useless."

Unfortunately for the voices in the background, he couldn't hear them at the moment as some memories that were initially lost to him returned.

"Are you okay, man?"

Pat! Pat!

Dennis felt a hand pat his back multiple times in concern.

"Yo Dennis! You okay, man?"

The familiar voice kept calling out till Dennis's mind returned to the present.

"Huff... yeah... yeah... I'm good. I just..." Dennis finally responded while straightening his back once more.

'Damn, I didn't realize just how many pieces of shit were usually around Dennis... what a shame,' He said internally as he cleared his mind.

"Do you need a break?" Malik inquired with worry etched on his face.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks," Dennis voiced in response.

At that point, all the Modified Combatants had surpassed them, and they were now staring at their backs as they got further away.

'So this is what prompted the death of the original Dennis,' He recalled a scene that he had forgotten that happened with the captain of their squad.

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"It doesn't help that you keep getting the vial that would have been better used on everyone else, so maybe you could tell the scientists to share your portion with the others,"

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Mark recalled that when the old Dennis heard that, he stormed out of the facility and headed to the shelter's lab.

Amidst tears, he begged for the scientists to help his body gain more strength so he could be more useful, and they coerced him into experimenting more with a the real UVS.

This drove him to overdo it and end up dying.

'Cory Parsons is a bigger piece of shit. He pretends to be all saintly and caring for everyone, but he is the one who pushed Dennis to his death at the end. So this was why I didn't feel comfortable when he welcomed me earlier,' He decided on something at that point.

'When I challenge him in the future, I'll make sure he suffers humiliation at the hands of the same person he pushed to his death,' Dennis's eyes were laced with determination as he came to his conclusion.

'It is the least I can do for old Dennis.'

"Let's go," Dennis said to Malik before bolting forward.

Malik's face displayed a look of relief as he dashed after Dennis. He was initially worried that Dennis might have pushed himself too hard to keep up with them.

Less than an hour later, Dennis completed the first drill of the day with the others.

The others were surprised, but they believed Dennis wouldn't be able to keep up for the rest of the day.

To their utmost bewilderment, Dennis was able to keep up with them for the rest of the drills until it was noon.

They still couldn't believe their eyes as they stared at Dennis remaining energetic for the rest of the day.

Close-quarter combat training practice...

Swimming practice...

Climbing practice...

Reaction practice...

By the time training was done for the day around four pm in the evening, some of the Combatants couldn't understand what was going on anymore.

Did noodle kneecaps truly get stronger? Did the vial really work on him?

One thing that was well known was the fact that every last day of the month, Modified Combatants with a high compatibility rate received the purple vial.

There was usually a testing process to check the improvement of Modified Combatants compatibility rate, and only those who got a significant amount of increase or had a very high compatibility rate always received the vial.

There had never been a month when Dennis didn't receive the purple vial. It didn't matter whether his compatibility rate increased or not. It was his right to always receive because no one ever came close to his compatibility rate.

The problem was that the vial never worked for Dennis, and this made a lot of combatants who had never received even a single one mad.

The others who received the vials always got a boost in their strength and growth level. The vial worked on such a molecular level that everything within their internal system was improved, down to their genes.

It was also one of the reasons why it made it practically impossible for other squads to catch up to squad one level of strength. Some of them already got the vial three times.

The top six strongest in squad one were already two times more powerful than what would be considered to be peak human strength.

Dennis, on the other hand, who had gotten this vial a total of six times, had no improvement until today.

'This vial is a cheat code... If old Dennis had trained his body more, with the number of times he received the vial, he would have been the strongest by now,' Dennis shook his head as he stared at the mirror in the bathroom.