# Chapter 297: Walking into the Abyss
Among the group, the severely ill and emaciated player was sent to the fourth floor, while the other three were locked back in their rooms.
Xu Huo passed by the door while taking a walk and caught a bit of the conversation. That one called Xiao Gao was clearly hit hard, repeating the same sentence over and over: "Aren't they dead? Aren't they dead? Aren't they dead..."
The doctor gave him a sedative injection.
Xu Huo went downstairs, sat on the lawn, and basked in the sun. Before long, Sima Xiao'er came down.
He wandered over to Xu Huo, lowered his voice, and said, "Those who escaped and were caught back are from the Special Defense Department. What's going on? Why do they say there's no such place as Ting City?"
"Xiao Gao was actually sent back by his parents' phone call!"
Sima Xiao'er's face showed disbelief and shock. "Weren't his parents killed by Evolvers? Could the scope of this Instance be bigger than just one hospital?"
He didn't care whether Xu Huo answered and continued, "It must be that way. That heavy fog covered the East District back then. Maybe the Instance territory is bigger than we imagined. You can't run out, and even if you do, you'll be caught back."
Xu Huo interrupted him. "What are you planning to do next?"
Sima Xiao'er perked up. "Find the Instance trigger point."
"Since we can't escape, we have to fight the Instance to the end. I don't believe that with so many of us, we can't clear a single Instance!"
Xu Huo nodded. "That's a good idea. Tell your companions to stop overthinking. Just search around the hospital. Maybe the Instance entry point is right in front of us."
Sima Xiao'er grinned. "Brother Xu, you're really something. When I first came in, I was almost dumbfounded. I've never heard of a case where someone enters an Instance but can't start the game."
Xu Huo patted him on the shoulder, got up, and went back into the hospital building to chat with Tang Guangbo.
After they sat down, Tang Guangbo, as usual, adjusted his glasses first, then drank some water, and smoothed the corners of the medical record book. "You're in a good mood today."
"The sun is nice today. It feels like I haven't sunbathed like this in a long time," Xu Huo said.
"Noticing the beauty in life—that's a good thing," Tang Guangbo said. "The reason people suffer is largely because they focus on what makes them suffer, turning a blind eye to the beauty right in front of them."
"If life is a progress bar, the more space pain takes up, the less happiness there is. Conversely, if you stretch out happiness, pain decreases."
"I don't agree with that view," Xu Huo said. "Pain and happiness aren't about length, but depth. Whose depth is deeper lasts longer."
Tang Guangbo's expression was gentle. "It depends on personal perspective. Lightening the weight of pain can be a method too."
"Most people don't analyze or reflect deeply on happiness, so it stays superficial. Pain, on the other hand, is a passive experience. People can learn lessons from it and think more."
"But I think for most people, there's no need to think that much. A person is like a bucket. If one plank is broken, no matter how high the others are, the water will just flow out in vain."
"Those who notice this waste and can patch the bucket can control both their mind and body. Those who notice the waste but can't patch the bucket can only control their mind, not their body."
"The height of human thought is infinite, but a person's intelligence, ability, and educational environment are limited. The collision between the two is actually the root of most people's pain."
"So, if you can't change the latter, you can change the former."
"Stop thinking?" Xu Huo asked.
"Of course, that's not what I mean," Tang Guangbo said with a wry smile. "Even those who completely fail to notice the water flowing out of their bucket still have their own thoughts. They just haven't broken through the barriers of their thinking, so there's less to think about, and they're happier."
"Sometimes thinking too much doesn't bring happiness. Finding joy in the mundane is also a good method. It helps with your condition too. Just looking at the sun and the flowers isn't bad."
He then pulled a key from his pocket and handed it to Xu Huo, pointing to a small door on the side of the office. "Open the door and take a look."
Xu Huo opened it as instructed and, following his prompt, looked up. A two-meter-high step connected to an exit. From where he stood, he could see sunlight, hear laughter, and even someone calling his name.
"Just walk out," Tang Guangbo reminded him from behind.
"What's below?" Xu Huo looked down. The flat ground in front of his feet suddenly sank. Black steps formed one by one, curving and spiraling downward into the depths of darkness.
Everything around him peeled and split apart like paper. The exit upstairs, the office, Tang Guangbo behind him—all vanished, replaced by pure blackness. The space beneath his feet expanded rapidly. The narrow, well-like spiral staircase instantly magnified tenfold, a hundredfold, turning into a massive abyssal mouth leading deep into the earth.
Xu Huo didn't hesitate. He stepped onto the uneven stone steps and walked down.
The edges of the steps had no railings, and looking down revealed only darkness. There was no sound, no airflow—a dead silence, as if even air didn't venture here.
After walking for about five minutes, he could no longer see the steps above when he looked up. By then, above and below were nearly the same, with only the steps beneath his feet remaining clear.
Gradually, the sound of shoe soles scraping against stone emerged.
Then came a long, drawn-out breath and a slow heartbeat.
Ten minutes later, Xu Huo felt the strength return to his legs. Just as he was about to continue downward, he heard another set of footsteps.
Coming from behind.
He turned to look and saw a shadowy figure standing at the edge of the steps above, also peering downward.
Xu Huo couldn't see the person's face. He withdrew his gaze and kept walking. The footsteps behind followed.
Each step almost overlapped with his own, maintaining the same pace for another ten minutes. Then a third set of footsteps appeared.
Xu Huo walked to the edge of the steps again and looked up. The figure above him also raised its head—three loops up the staircase, a third person was looking down.
All three moved in the same rhythm. So when Xu Huo returned to his path and continued downward, the other two sets of footsteps followed closely.
By then, Xu Huo's breathing and heartbeat had faded from his ears again. On the massive spiral staircase, only the overlapping footsteps remained.
But this balance didn't last long. A fourth person appeared on the stairs—the one at the very top.
The person at the top, like the two before, looked down. After spotting those below, they suddenly accelerated and ran downward.
As they started running, the third person below also began to run. Then the second person sped up.
Hearing the footsteps of the three behind gradually merge, Xu Huo pressed his right hand against the wall and sprinted along the steps.
The four of them seemed to be racing on the spiral staircase, circling deeper and deeper into the abyss. Before long, the sound of four sets of footsteps dwindled to three.