# Chapter 293: Does the Game World Really Exist?
Xu Huo reached out and pulled a tissue, taking the opportunity to wrap up the capsule hidden in his sleeve and head to the restroom.
After flushing the medicine away, he returned to the ward but didn't sleep. Instead, he walked over to the window.
Outside, the sky was dark. Bright streetlights illuminated the wide lawn. Although the distant enclosing wall was five or six meters high, it was still clear that this was a well-conditioned psychiatric hospital.
And now he was a mental patient diagnosed with schizophrenia, admitted four months ago, currently undergoing medication treatment.
Xu Huo couldn't determine whether this was inside an instance.
Because he still hadn't received any game prompts. Additionally, he had lost some abilities—unable to open the game panel, unable to use items, and even the evolutionary traits of his body had disappeared.
After he and Yan Jiayu were surrounded by xenomorphs, climbed over the wall, and were struck by a strange force, he woke up tied up. Yan Jiayu was missing, but Tang Guangbo, Yu Qingqing, Dai Wenqian, Zhou Ning, and the others had appeared—either in person or by name. Tang Guangbo had become a doctor at the psychiatric hospital, while Yu, Dai, and Zhou had become nurses... If this wasn't an instance, could it be an illusion?
He tried the simplest pain test. He could feel pain, and there was no sense of consciousness being stripped away.
He was very clear-headed now, as clear-headed as if he had just washed his face after waking up in the morning.
Turning around, he lifted the hospital bed to confirm that his evolutionary power had indeed disappeared. Then he lay down to rest, not getting up again until late at night.
Opening the door and walking out, the nurse on duty was dozing at the desk. However, the iron door leading through the rest area to the treatment room and doctor's office had a combination lock.
Without rashly touching the lock, he walked to the duty station. Through the railing, he reached out and took a hospital brochure, then borrowed the nurse's phone resting on the desk.
According to the brochure, the Seventeenth Hospital was a private psychiatric hospital with a fifty-year history. In recent years, it had hired domestic and international experts at high salaries, achieving significant results in psychiatric treatment and winning numerous awards.
Online platforms also had information about this hospital—past promotions, feedback from families and patients, and records of the hospital's multiple renovations or repairs, all searchable on the internet.
Moreover, the outside world was peaceful. There were no players, no evolvers, and certainly no invaders. The only place where the Dimension Crack game was discussed was a single game forum.
"Do you play this game too?" Someone suddenly spoke from behind.
Xu Huo spun around sharply, only to see a pale, thin patient staring intently at him. The man then revealed a strange smile, raised his index finger to his lips, and walked toward the ward, beckoning for Xu Huo to follow.
Xu Huo put the phone and brochure back, then followed him to the ward.
There were three other people in the room where they stayed. When they saw Xu Huo, they frowned and questioned the man who had brought him in, "Why are you bringing a stranger here?"
The thin patient licked his lips. "Do you think just the few of us can escape the Seventeenth Hospital? Let me tell you, I've tried before. Every time, I was caught before I could even get out. When they brought me back, they gave me shots and pills and locked me in the treatment room. That's no life for a human."
The tall, dark-skinned man among the three sighed and looked up at Xu Huo. "Did you receive a game prompt?"
"No," Xu Huo said. "What about you?"
"No, either," the tall man said. "And we've lost our traits and items too. I suspect this is the game's power. Only by escaping this psychiatric hospital or triggering the instance's key point can we reactivate our player identity."
"But we've been here for days and haven't found anything," another person said. "How do we reactivate?"
"I've been everywhere I can go in the hospital. I've seen everyone except the director. Nothing—people or events—has triggered anything," the tall man said. "So the only option is to try escaping. Maybe we can leave the instance boundary."
The thin patient kept smiling. "As long as the instance isn't triggered, we just need to leave the psychiatric hospital. Outside is a new world."
Xu Huo noticed the man's obviously abnormal mental state and asked, "Where are you from? How long have you been here?"
"Me?" The thin patient was stunned for a moment, then sluggishly replied, "Me... I'm from Ting City. I don't remember how long I've been here... but the doctor said almost half a year."
The origin of this incident was that strange fog. Xu Huo then asked the others one by one. Although not all of them were from Ting City, they had all entered from there. The tall man even described the buildings that had appeared in the fog wall.
"That's not right..." the thin patient said again. "Ting City seems to be a game district in Dimension Crack. I often log in from that district. There's no Ting City in reality."
The others in the room fell silent. The tall man said to Xu Huo, "Don't ever take the medicine the doctors and nurses give you. I suspect it's mind-control medication, designed to make us believe we're sick."
"I won't believe a single word from those doctors and nurses, and you shouldn't either." The group encouraged each other, as if this was the only way to weaken the unease caused by losing their evolutionary abilities.
Xu Huo wanted to ask them something, but when the words reached his lips, he couldn't remember. He returned to his own ward and only remembered when he closed the door that he had wanted to ask those players about the hospital, the doctors, and the nurses' names.
How could he have forgotten something so important?
Just as he was about to go out and ask again, footsteps sounded outside. He immediately went back to his bed, lay down facing the door, and left a slit under his eyelids.
The person outside was Zhou Ning. Her familiar face peered through the glass window with a small light, then quickly left.
Xu Huo fell asleep like that, only waking up the next day to the sound of his roommate's snoring.
He sat up, his expression solemn as he stared at the raised lump on the opposite bed. He rubbed his brow vigorously. Not only had he forgotten something important, but he had also slept deeply.
Was this an illusion or the effect of the instance?
"Hey." The person on the opposite bed also sat up, hugging the blanket as he sized up Xu Huo. "Are you a player?"
Xu Huo didn't answer, so the man continued on his own, "I'm not crazy. Black players, cannibal players—they're all real. It's just that no one believes me... Hah! Truth is only grasped by a few. You're just pitiful creatures trapped at the bottom of a well, completely unable to understand the world of an evolver like me."
After finishing his monologue, he looked at Xu Huo again. "You don't believe me either, do you? I tell you, I can prove it to you. I have a very powerful item!"
As he spoke, he raised his hand, but it was empty.
His eyes momentarily froze, but he quickly recovered, "How could I forget? In this instance, my power is restricted... Let me tell you quietly—don't trust the doctors and nurses here. They're all instance bosses, specifically responsible for killing players."
Xu Huo narrowed his eyes as he looked at the person leaning in close, finding the whole situation absurd.