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Like all new contestants, Lirzod had finished removing his footwear at the allocated location nearby the ice dumpster. Sariyu, however, shut her nose so hard that blood amassed in that location. The drifting smell of shoes and socks shook her whole being. The word “unpleasant” wasn’t enough to describe the stink that winds wafted onto her. While her nose was sealed, the biting odor in the air still slipped through the tiniest gaps and left a godawful taste in her throat. She didn’t smell something so rueful in so long a time that it almost made her faint. Though Lirzod and Burton were calling her, she couldn’t open her mouth as the last thing she would want was succumbing to her senses at such a spot. More and more men arrived at the location to keep their boots, thereby intensifying her ailment. All she had to do was remove her footwear and leave the place like the rest, but she couldn’t find the strength to do so. It took her all to keep her nose shut.

The main attraction of the eleventh deck’s test hall was verily the ice dumpster; however, numerous minor events were also always taking place at several spots.   Some events showcased people testing the coarseness of their skin while some others promoted people to harden their tootsies by moving atop a mat embedded with small and spiky substances or to alleviate oneself in the art of contending and tangling with tumult. All the minor events helped entries tackle the main test under a brilliant light, enticing them into trying them all out despite the exorbitant prices put by the event holders. Some of these events might be a bit painful to watch for those with faint hearts, but even they could find subtly-funny moments thanks to entries frequently mishitting each other in foolhardy ways.

On the eleventh deck, at a particular spot inside the test hall known as Ice Dumpster, Lirzod was watching Burton compete with the rest. All the competitors brawled with each other in a three-foot-high icy-cold pool. At any chance, exactly a hundred of the entries were allowed to enter on one side, and those who reached the opposite side first would have won the test and would then be eligible to go to the twelfth deck. Burton had already tried it three times and failed. An entry could only participate once every three consecutive contests. However, he first had to wrestle with the masses to get a ticket for entering the event, which was nothing less than a brutal brawl of entries.  Getting a ticket for the contest was one thing, but winning it was an entirely different thing. Inside the pool known to many mouths as Ice Dumpster, people pummeled one another pitilessly, dragged others by their legs, pulled each other down underwater, stomped over some, pulled each other’s hair, t...

The guard hurriedly exchanged a few words with Ballu for the second time, telling him to also take care of the one with a hole in the stomach, before catching up with the commander who was chatting with Lirzod. “I never asked you, but... Did you finish the deck test?” Zentzu asked. “Yes, just barely,” Lirzod said, glancing back at Ballu. “That guy won’t kill them, or would he?” “You went out of your way and told him to not take their jewels, so I think he won't,” Zentzu said, “but if he lets his rage take over him, then anything may happen. Though killing isn't allowed, people still take each other to near-death situations, and sometimes, people do die. In any case, if those four die, then he'll be in big trouble. So, he will probably do everything he can while making sure those four won't die."