Jeff left his sister knowing that she had a million fears she wasn't voicing. He had them too, but right now, his job was to do whatever the people in lab coats say and that's what he was doing... despite his stomach and balls protesting with every step.
Jeff got to the lab and one of the men he'd seen before was waiting for him. "Ahh, dinner is done? Good. It's time for a workout."
"If you don't want me to throw up, I don't think that's such a good idea right now."
"Ahh, stretching that stomach to maintain a higher mass, excellent. This won't require much exertion on your part, but this is to ensure your body will be making very good use of those nutrients."
"This machine, would you mind undressing completely and stepping in, is something we've developed to make cuts inside the body with soundwaves. When soundwaves from different places meet at the same point, in phase with one another, they have high energy, and that can be used to damage cells and even cut them. Think, cutting the blood flow off from a tumor, or breaking apart a kidney stone. Put your arms out and relax. We developed this technology to see if we can use the ultrasonic cutting methodology to simulate muscle activity which is lots of tiny tears along the muscle fibers, imagine someone going through physical therapy, or after being in, or even during, a coma."
Jeff was now encased in a machine and spread out like he was making a snow angel, only his head was outside.
"Turns out the method can be super helpful but humans take many times longer than a machine at analyzing the details to get desirable results. Too deep, too shallow, too strong, too weak, and it's just hurting the patient. Also, patients move so the faster the better. Calibrating, hold still. You'll feel the machine make contact everywhere."
The machine whirred into action and Jeff felt many sensors push against his body from all sides. "With the right nutrients at the right time, this machine can take you from where you are now and make you rival Mr. Universe in a month without lifting much more than a fork. Those, however, aren't my instructions. Though I am to make sure you have a musculature which supports your story of..." the man glanced at his computer screen and read, "the subject having heavy physical labor jobs or hobbies until their late 20s. So that'd put you at 8-10 years of regular heavy lifting? Unstructured, focused on strength?"
"I guess?"
The man pulled up a picture, "Roughly something like this? There was a muscular mannequin-like man spinning on the screen."
"Sure? I mean, it's not The Rock, but it looks like it'd fit the description."
The man completed a couple of keypresses and the musculature bulked up slightly. "All right, final analysis time..." A scrawny frame which Jeff could only reason as his own from the initial calibration phase popped up. The 'goal' mannequin became a wireframe and Jeff's image was superimposed inside it. The goal suddenly seemed so much farther away. Numbers flashed across the screen as muscle groups highlighted, 100% increase in this muscle, 180% increase in that muscle, and after a moment the technician said the machine was ready. Jeff felt the machine turn on again and occasionally felt a pinching sensation in some muscle or another, but besides that, it was relatively painless. The probes inside the machine retracted and Jeff had room to move again, though was still encased.
The man brought over a wheelchair and collected Jeff's things in a giant bag and put it on the arm of the wheelchair before finding a hospital gown for Jeff. "You don't feel like it but you just did a months worth of perfect full-body weightlifting in a few minutes. Unlike normal exercise which can injure the muscle, this process does just enough damage to stimulate growth without the risk of overtraining and the whole muscle is uniformly targeted for growth. What I'm trying to say is you are weak now, and you're going to be sore tomorrow. The IV we previously gave you flooded your system with molecules that will find the damage we just did and rush nutrients to the billions of micro-injuries we just made. You may already feel your muscles swelling and becoming tighter. Next is your massage and anti-stretch mark creme application."
Sure enough, he did feel everything swelling. His skin was tightening all over his body as various muscles were bulging. Jeff was released from the machine, covered in the gown, then carefully helped into the wheelchair. He thought the pampering was excessive until he nearly collapsed the first time he put weight on his legs. The technician was prepared, catching Jeff and gently eased him into the chair. "It's always easiest the first time... Next time I see you, you'll be 30-40 lbs heavier..." he said with a chuckle.
Jeff was wheeled to another lab similar to the one he was in earlier today. Jeff was introduced to a masseuse and then informed he'd be knocked out for most of the procedure and undergoing a more intense memory procedure.
Jeff was assisted onto the table and asked to disrobe, he laid on his stomach. The masseuse put on gloves and asked him which scent he wanted before they began their work on Jeff's back coating him in a masculine scented creme that tingled when applied. As Jeff relaxed a woman from the Mental team came up to him.
"Now Mr. Good, this procedure will set the foundation of your relationship with Kayla, This will bring you mentally from high school graduate to your early 20s. There will be a lot of relationship skills including dating, socializing, romance, parenting, and we are going to embed your name. From now on you shouldn't respond to Jeff anymore. It looks like there will be some cross interactions with your first upload, taxes, budgeting skills, asking for time off and raises, looks like workplace benefits information is in here, apartment rental... All in all, some strong groundwork stuff that anyone off the street is likely to have. Ope, looks like you are also getting some college in here too... Like I said, lots of foundational stuff." With that, she flushed the port and injected something then an IV was connected.
Jeff awoke lying on his back, in the untied gown, and the masculine scent wafted off of him. As soon as he stirred the technicians were asking him to sit up with their assistance and get back to the wheelchair. Jeff was hazy but complied and listened the best he could.
"What your body needs now is sleep... to your room... for bed... breakfast..."
"Can I go pee before sleep?"
"Yeah, I'll help you."
Jeff was helped onto the toilet and was fighting sleep while peeing, he was exhausted but the sedative had worn off and he was able to focus on the idle chat of the technician. When finished he used the wall to help him the one step to the sink, he unsteadily stood and washed his hands. Despite his tiredness, he grabbed the toothpaste and a toothbrush and began his nightly routine remembering the first few jobs he had and how shitty they were. Moments later he was applying an ointment conspicuously labeled "Night Creme" to his forehead, and around his eyes, vigorously rubbing it in. He washed his hands off again and realized what he had just done slightly unsettled. For the first time, he actually saw more than just his face in the mirror, "Holy fuck, is that me?" Jeff's biceps and forearms were huge by his normal standard, he took the gown off his torso and got a look at his pecks which now actually stood out from his body, he even had shoulder lumps and his shoulders were broader from the inflamed muscles there. "Is this for real?" He asked poking the various lumps tenderly.
The man smiled and let out a light chuckle. "Not yet Mr. Good. Right now that's all just water to carry nutrition from your food and those IVs to the damaged tissue, but in a few days you'll be ready for another round and nobody will believe you're under 25 once they look at you, even if you told them yourself. But now, you really need all the sleep you can get."
Jeff used the wall to shakily take a backward step and collapse into the wheelchair. he was rolled to a bed and the man turned down the sheet for him and Jeff carefully crawled in. Jeff undid the robe pulling it the rest of the way off of him and fell asleep trying to hand it to the man.
Michael smiled, tomorrow will be a very rough day for Jeff. Up until now, the machine had only been used on adults and never to this extent. Trials to this point were adding 5-10% muscle mass, in many places Jeff is multiplying overall muscle size many times over. Michael had always imagined using the technology to make a scrawny person beefy but imagined he'd have more than a week and a half to do it.