Players, Please Board the Train

Sima Xiao Er’s spirits lifted, ”Looking for the dungeon trigger point.”

”Since we can’t escape, we might as well go all out against this dungeon. I don’t believe so many of us can’t break through a single dungeon!”

Xu Huo nodded, ”That’s a good approach. Tell your companions to stop overthinking things and search around the hospital when they have time. The dungeon entrance might be right before our eyes.”

Sima Xiao Er smiled, ”Brother Xu, you’re really impressive. When I first came in, I was almost stunned speechless. I’ve never heard of a case where players enter a dungeon but can’t start the game.”

Xu Huo patted his shoulder, stood up, and returned to the hospital building to find Tang Guangbo for a chat.

After they sat down, Tang Guangbo followed his usual routine of adjusting his glasses first, then taking a sip of water, before smoothing the corners of the medical record book, ”You seem to be in a good mood today.”

”The sunlight is beautiful today. It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve basked in the sun like this,” Xu Huo said.

”Noticing the beauty in life is a good thing,” Tang Guangbo said, ”The main reason people suffer is because they focus too much on things that cause them pain while turning a blind eye to the beauty right before them.”

”If life were a progress bar, when the length of suffering increases, happiness naturally decreases. Conversely, if you extend the length of happiness, suffering will decrease.”

”I don’t agree with that perspective,” Xu Huo said, ”Suffering and happiness aren’t about length, but depth. Whichever has greater depth will last longer.”Tang Guangbo maintained his gentle expression, ”That depends on individual perspective. Appropriately downplaying suffering isn’t necessarily a bad approach.”

”Most people don’t analyze or deeply contemplate happiness, which is why it remains superficial. Suffering, however, is a passive experience from which people can learn lessons and think more deeply.”

”But I believe for most people, there’s no need to overthink things. A person is like a water bucket - if just one plank is too short, no matter how tall the other planks are, you can only watch the water inside flow out uselessly.”

”Those who can notice this waste and repair the bucket can master both mind and body. Those who notice the waste but cannot fix the bucket can only master their mind, not their body.”

”Human thinking has limitless height, but a person’s intelligence, abilities, and educational environment are limited. The collision between these two is actually the source of most people’s suffering.”

”So when you cannot change the latter, you can change the former.”

”Give up thinking?” Xu Huo asked.

”That’s not what I meant at all,” Tang Guangbo chuckled, ”Even people who completely fail to notice their bucket leaking have their own thoughts. They just haven’t broken through their mental barriers, so they have fewer things to think about and are consequently happier.”

”Sometimes overthinking doesn’t necessarily bring happiness. Appropriately seeking joy in the mundane world is also a good approach, which can help with your condition. Simply watching the sun or admiring flowers is quite nice too.”

After speaking, he took a key from his pocket and handed it to Xu Huo, pointing toward a small door on the side of the office, ”Open it and take a look.”

Xu Huo followed his instructions and opened the door, then looked upward as prompted. A two-meter-high step connected to an exit, and from his position he could see sunlight, hear laughter, and someone calling his name.

”Just walk out,” Tang Guangbo reminded him from behind.

”What’s below?” Xu Huo looked down. The flat ground before his feet suddenly dropped away, black steps forming one by one, curving and spiraling downward into the deep darkness.

Everything around him peeled and split apart like cardboard. The exit above, the office, and Tang Guangbo behind him all vanished, replaced by pure blackness. Meanwhile, the space beneath his feet rapidly expanded, the narrow well-like spiral staircase instantly magnifying tenfold, then dozens of times, becoming a massive abyss opening leading deep underground.

Xu Huo didn’t hesitate much before walking down along the uneven stone steps.

The edges of the steps had no guardrails, and looking down revealed only darkness, completely devoid of sound or airflow, dead silent as if even air didn’t venture here.

After walking for about five minutes, he could no longer see the steps above when looking up. At this point, there was little difference between above and below, with only the steps beneath his feet remaining clearly visible.

Gradually, the sound of shoe soles scraping against stone emerged.

Followed by long, drawn-out breathing and a slow heartbeat.

Ten minutes later, Xu Huo felt the strength returning 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 shadow standing at the edge of the steps above, similarly peering downward.

Xu Huo couldn’t see the other person’s face. He withdrew his gaze and continued walking, the footsteps behind him following closely.

The nearly overlapping footsteps maintained the same pace for ten minutes, then a third set of footsteps appeared.

Xu Huo walked to the edge of the steps again and looked upward. The figure above him also looked up - three spiral levels above, a third person was looking downward.

All three moved with the same frequency, so when Xu Huo returned to his path and continued downward, the other two sets of footsteps immediately followed.

At this point, Xu Huo’s breathing and heartbeat sounds disappeared from his ears again. On the massive spiral staircase, only the overlapping footsteps remained.

However, this balance didn’t last long. A fourth person appeared on the staircase, standing at the very top.

Like the previous two, the topmost person looked downward, and upon discovering the people below, suddenly accelerated into a run downward.

Once he started running, the third person below also began running downward, followed immediately by the second person speeding up.

Hearing the three sets of footsteps behind him gradually overlapping, Xu Huo placed his right hand against the wall and sprinted along the steps.

The four seemed to be racing on the spiral staircase, circling downward toward the deeper parts of the abyss. Before long, the four sets of footsteps reduced to three, then three became two. The shadow closest behind Xu Huo pursued for the longest time, but eventually disappeared too.

Only after they vanished did Xu Huo slow his pace, adjusting his breathing as he continued walking on the steps.

This didn’t last long either. Soon new shadows appeared behind him, then a second, a third, and the four began racing again, until only three remained, then two, leaving Xu Huo walking alone.

The same sequence repeated ten times. By the time Xu Huo had descended this spiral staircase for twelve hours, he could no longer sense anything around him. Even his own body seemed weakened, all senses reduced to only his feet, which could only feel the stone steps beneath them.

The stone steps had become smooth.

Just as Xu Huo suddenly realized this, floors began constructing themselves ahead on the spiral staircase. Light expanded from beneath his feet, a massive room spreading out with the light. Passing through the spiral staircase, it rapidly rose upward, stretching hundreds of meters in an instant, extending all the way to the edge of vision, forming a gigantic underground circular tower!