You are given a string s that contains lowercase English letters and the character '*'.

You must eliminate all '*' characters by repeatedly performing the following operation:

• Select the leftmost '*' in s.

• Delete this '*' alongside the smallest character other than '*' situated to its left. If there are multiple occurrences of the smallest character, any one of them may be deleted.

Return the lexicographically smallest string that can be formed after removing all '*' characters.

Constraints:

• $1 \leq$ s.length $\leq 10^5$

• s consists only of lowercase English letters and '*'.

• The input is generated such that it is possible to delete all '*' characters.

Now, let’s take a moment to make sure you’ve correctly understood the problem. The quiz below helps you check if you’re solving the correct problem:

We have a game for you to play. Rearrange the logical building blocks to develop a clearer understanding of how to solve this problem.

Implement your solution in the following coding playground.