Challenge #02222-F032: Snapping Point

(Sorry for everything bad in this prompt. My grammar isn't perfect. Anyway English isn't my native language :/)

Obsession about humans is almost natural in some species. Scientists literally love watching their human beings on tests. But some scientists went too far, when they ask: How much pain can human endure before they give up? -- Anon Guest

[AN: No worries, Nonny. When I encounter a prompt with obvious grammatical or spelling errors, I fix them up so that the soul of the prompt is just that little bit clearer for my readers. BTW English is hard because it steals lexicons from other languages and pretends it was always that way. Congratulations on mastering a good chunk of it.]

There is a saying, Anything can happen in the Edge. On the edges of Alliance space, where the laws are arbitrary and the morals don't always matter, people are more likely to interact in their own self-interest rather than consider another's concerns. You can find anything in the Edge. Things that would be illegal, immoral, or unhealthy in other regions. Things to satiate desires both subtle and gross.

You could, at a certain time, find installations like the Interstice Analysis Institute, where cogniscents fascinated by humans could study these self-confessed 'space orcs' and their patented survivability in controlled scientific conditions. The Humans within volunteered, and in return they received medical care, proper nutrition, shelter, entertainment, and sociability. In return, the scientific minds in charge ran the volunteers through assorted wringers. Humans sometimes came close to death, but the ideal was to never drive them past their own danger signals.

On its last month of operation, they were testing Human Endurance. A succession of increasingly complicated obstacle courses, where the teams of Humans were comprised entirely of individuals who would not get along in any given circumstance. Their conversations were monitored, as were the tonal inflections and biological stress indicators. In respite zones, the Humans had noticed that those zones were getting incrementally smaller.

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