Does the hero’s journey have to take place in a ball pit, or if it does, can the ball pit be secretly full of knives?

I have never read a book before but I thought of this great new idea. What if instead of the antagonist being a person, which is too easy to guess, the REAL antagonist is the setting? Is this allowed? This takes place in a posthuman dystopia, if that matters. If it works I think I’ll call this new conflict theory Man vs. Ball Pit Full of Knives.