On November 6, 2045, at 4 pm, a post quietly pinned to the top of the Jiangcheng University forum.
“Notice: Something big will happen tomorrow morning at 10 am. Details will be announced at 8:20 pm. Stay tuned!”
This seemingly ordinary post was pinned by the forum admin, sparking curiosity among netizens. The familiar operation and style reminded many of a similar incident a few years ago.
A legendary “Bro CD” had stolen the admin’s account, posting a fake seed link that never materialized, causing a massive uproar in the forum. The incident was so infamous that many people still remembered it.
Thus, the storm began to brew once more.
Comments started pouring in: “Bro CD, is that you? What do you owe us?” and “Bro CD is back!” Some freshmen asked, “What’s going on? Who’s Bro CD?” and were subsequently educated about the past incident.
Despite the commotion, the forum remained operational, unlike last time when it was shut down. The post continued to ferment in the Jiangcheng University forum.
At 6 pm, just two hours later, the post had already garnered 20,000 comments, with the number of repliers still increasing. Even students who rarely browsed the forum were drawn in, joining the chaos.
Zhushi Jiu and Li Hua pretended to be innocent bystanders, eating melons (a Chinese idiom for watching drama unfold) and occasionally popping out a provocative comment.
“Is this okay?” Li Hua asked, somewhat puzzled.
Zhushi Jiu replied, “Don’t worry, the good stuff is yet to come.”
Half an hour later, the number of new comments slowed down. It was as if the netizens’ patience had worn thin.
“Bro CD isn’t responding; what’s the point of us sticking around?” someone commented.
The netizens continued to speculate, but Bro CD remained silent, just like before. This only reinforced the belief that it was indeed Bro CD behind the post.
However, not everyone was convinced. Some knew that Bro CD was a senior student who was about to graduate and couldn’t fathom why he would resort to such a stunt again. They decided to wait and observe.
Bro CD’s response was simple and brutal.
At 6:30 pm, a similar post appeared in the neighboring University of Science and Technology’s forum. The same admin, same pinned post, same provocative silence.
The students of the University of Science and Technology were baffled, wondering if they had stumbled into the wrong forum.
Thus, the forums of both universities exploded.
The two university forums were hacked, and the students began to explore each other’s forums. The majority of students were bewildered, but as time passed, the incident spread to other unrelated forums.
At this point, the students who started the commotion were no longer the main force. Instead, outsiders who stumbled upon the incident began to dominate the discussion.
Zhushi Jiu and Li Hua sat in front of their computers, watching the chaos unfold.
Li Hua felt that things had gotten a bit out of hand, gulping as he asked, “Is it over?”
Zhushi Jiu shook his head, “Not yet.”
The plan was only getting started. Zhushi Jiu had collaborated with Bro CD for hours, and the next step was to post several more threads in various university forums.
The new threads targeted Jiangcheng Industrial University, University of Technology, Business University, Media University, and Normal University. Five more schools were dragged into the chaos.
If someone were to look at the Jiangcheng city map, they would be astonished to discover that the affected universities were scattered across the city, covering the entire information network.
As the incident continued to ferment, it suddenly exploded like a deep-water bomb in the online world!
Netizens went wild, relaying the news to others, and the post soon topped the trending charts on the blog platform!
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Many people were left clueless, only remembering two time points from the post: 10 am tomorrow when “something big would happen” and 8:20 pm when “it would be announced.”
As 8:20 pm approached, the seven university forums received a new pinned post: “Tomorrow morning at 10 am, the world will end!”
Zhushi Jiu heaved a long sigh, feeling that they had reached the limit of what they could do. From day to night, they had managed to create this level of hype.
In reality, when the post went viral on the blog platform, he knew that they didn’t need to pretend to be water army (paid posters) anymore. As long as the pinned post had updates, everyone would go crazy discussing it, and the heat would continue to rise.
Zhushi Jiu messaged Bro CD, “Great job, I’ll pay the remaining fee after confirming the results.”
Bro CD replied, “No problem, boss! I’ll be at your service anytime!”
Li Hua stared at the computer screen, still in shock. “World’s end?” he muttered.
The “world’s end” post had brought the seven university forums to a standstill, but some netizens had already taken screenshots and posted them online.
The netizens finally reached a consensus: they had been pranked.
The ridiculous pinned post, opened by seven universities, ended with an absurd prediction, making it seem like the person behind the curtain was just playing a joke on everyone, telling them a prophecy that no one believed.
Just like the incident years ago at Jiangcheng University, Bro CD had pranked everyone at 8:20 pm.
Some people laughed it off, some were outraged, and some were still eating melons (watching the drama unfold)…
In total, the prophecy had reached Zhushi Jiu’s expected level of hype, but the fermentation time was too short. It was good enough that thousands of netizens were paying attention to this incident in the quiet of the night.
Next, they would wait and observe the developments.
If a prophecy about the world’s end appeared online, would the apocalypse arrive earlier or later?
He wanted to know the answer…
That night at 9:10 pm, Bro CD put down his keyboard.
Even someone as bold as him had some trepidation. It wasn’t because he had single-handedly stirred up a storm online, but because of the unknown guy who had him post that playful prophecy.
Nobody knew that he was following someone else’s instructions, and he didn’t know what content Zhushi Jiu had prepared until 8:20 pm.
Until then, Zhushi Jiu only told him to post that the world would end tomorrow morning at 10 am.
If this was just a prank, it would be fine. However, he found that Zhushi Jiu was dead serious, even paying a 5,000 yuan deposit.
Would someone really go to such great lengths for a prank?
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Bro CD pondered for a long time but couldn’t come up with an answer. As his stomach growled, he got up to cook a bowl of instant noodles.
Just then, his phone rang, startling him. It was his girlfriend.
“Scared me! It’s Xiaolian.”
Bro CD answered the phone, and the other end was quiet for a moment before Xiaolian spoke, her voice trembling.
“Where are you now?”
Bro CD’s heart skipped a beat.
The conversation was filled with an eerie atmosphere, and he felt a sense of unease.
“Open the door, please,” Xiaolian pleaded.
Bro CD’s body froze.
Who was knocking on the door?
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