In his previous life, Arya was in the upper middle in the rank of the group, so he entered the blue gate.
Inside a blue gate, the people who entered were divided into a group of five people and their task was to defend a crystal for three days straight, from the regular monster waves.
The people who entered the red gate also had to do the same thing, but as it was a nightmare difficulty the number of participants was three, and the number of days to defend increased to ten days.
From what Arya remembered only one or two groups were able to clear the trial from all of the halls present, which speaks of the volume of the difficulty the red gate had.
As Arya who was ranked one and had to choose first which gate he would choose started walking towards the three gates, most of the participants thought he would choose the white gate and would easily pass the trial.
But what he did shocked them. Arya went straight towards the red gate and entered it without even looking back and seeing the expression other participants had.
"What..?! Did he just enter the red gate?"
"Is he an idiot, does he not understand what a nightmare difficulty is?! Does being the rank one get up to his head."
As everyone was talking about the stunt Arya just pulled, they didn't notice someone else also started walking towards the gates.
Just when he was about to reach the gates people noticed him and realised he must be the rank 2 participant.
A tall 7 feet tall, bulky guy was standing in front of the red gate and similar to Arya he just entered the gate.
"What?! What's happening to the people on top?!"
"Did he enter the gate due to his ego? As the 1st rank entered the red gate."
As everyone was chatting the third rank started walking towards the gate. And he stopped in front of the white gate.
At this time everyone was paying attention, they followed him from the start till he reached in front of the white gate.
"Che!! Why didn't he select the red gate like those two?!" Someone from the people present commented seeing the third rank went to the white gate instead of the red like the previous two.
"Do you think I am an idiot like those two, why would I leave a golden ticket, that leads me directly to the next stage." the third rank said and showed a middle finger to all the present and entered the white gate.
After these three people everyone who was left started entering the blue gate as that's the safer option than entering the red gate.
In every hall, there were 99 people from whom 1 would enter the white gate, 3 in the red gate, and the rest 95 people form 19 teams of 5 people at the blue gate.
As everyone entered the blue gate, only one person remained. He was the same skinny guy who went to buy the essence from Arya at the last moment and but couldn't due to Arya not having them.
During the last half an hour, he was able to get the essence from a boy whom he tortured by cutting his fingers, both legs and even his left hand.
He broke the boy till he got the essence from him and was able to pass the trial.
He entered after Arya and sat in a corner of the room, that's why Arya was not able to notice him.
He unwillingly started walking towards the red gate as his rank was 99, so his only option was the red gate where one slot was remaining and after reaching the gate he soon entered the gate.
...
In his previous life, those few who entered the red gate and passed it were a lot stronger than the people who entered the blue gate.
The reason for this was pretty simple, they were on that stage for ten days and killed more numbers of monsters that gave them a lot of XP to level up and even free stat points, than those who entered the blue gate and killed monsters for only three days to pass the trial.
Arya's goal is to become the strongest, so how can he run away from a challenge? Or an opportunity to become stronger. So he had already decided to enter the red gate.
But when he reached the hall and noticed one person, the guy he knew from his previous life.
His best friend, the previous second strongest person in the world and ironically ranked 2 in this trial too, 'Aetherius Rex'. Arya knew that he would enter the red gate too.
So, it will give him a good way to become friends once again.
Arya after entering the red gate arrived on top of a tower, the tower was around 15 feet tall with a top platform having a radius of around 5 feet.
In the center of the platform where Arya was standing, a big blue crystal was present, which they had to defend during the trial.
As Arya was looking around the place, someone appeared on the top of the tower, Arya smiled genuinely for the first time after regression, as his guess turned out to be true.
The person who just arrived was 'Aetherius Rex', Arya then walked towards him and offered his hand for a handshake and to do the introduction.
"Hello, I am Arya Dev." Arya did a simple introduction while offering his hand.
"You are strong," Aetherius said while shaking Arya's hand. He had a cheeky smile on his face.
"And I am Aetherius Rex."
'He is just as he was in my previous life.' Arya thought to himself as Aetherius was just as he recalled him. A simple-minded person who respects those with strength over anything else.
Before they can even talk further someone else joins them.
The person as soon as he saw Arya, started gritting his teeth, and there was anger plastered on his face. This confused both Arya and Aetherius.
Arya, when he looked at the face of the newcomer tried to recall him. But he couldn't recall anyone with such a deep diagonal cut in his face.
Yes, during the struggle to get the essence, that skinny guy got this long and deep diagonal cut on his face.
So because of this cut, Arya wasn't able to recall this man properly.
'Have I met him before, uhh..! I don't think so. Though I think I have seen this face.'
Aetherius, though was able to feel the tension in the air. As he can see this new person has some problems with Arya. Who was just as confused as he was.
So, he decided to talk to this person to know him. Since for the next ten days. They will be partners and will be doing this trial together.
So Aetherius walked up to this new guy and introduced himself.
"Hello, I am Aetherius, and you?!"
"Huh?!" The guy was not even paying attention since his full focus was on Arya, So he didn't even notice Aetherius reaching near him.
"I am Rohan." He answered.
Before Aetherius could even chat more an announcement rang, which made all three of them focus on it.
[This is the fourth tutorial trial, it is based on defense or to be more specific. You have to defend this big crystal in the middle of this tower for the next ten days.]
[There will be many monster waves that will attack in regular intervals to destroy this crystal and you have to stop it.]