Virtual gain refers to the simulation of real light amplification using radiation with exponentially decaying amplitude so that its complex frequency corresponds to the scattering pole. We study theoretically virtual gain in a two-level resonant medium for different regimes of light-matter interaction depending on the radiation intensity. We show that virtual gain at the pole can be most clearly observed for low intensities, when the medium is absorbing, in contrast to the saturated medium at high intensities. The efficiency of virtual gain can be tuned with the light intensity and controlled dynamically through the population inversion of the medium. Our results show that resonantly absorbing media paradoxically mimic a gainlike response, which admits a number of related phenomena and methods to mold both optical signals and material properties without relying on instability-prone gain media.