[Do not pass anyone's friend request.]
[Do not expose your account ID in any setting.]
[Do not view the administrator's social feed.]
1
This friend-matching app was weird.
In the dorm, I stared at the Yi Nian app's clean interface and rules, and a cold prickle crawled up my spine.
My name is Sable. I'm a junior in college.
Probably because of genetics, six months ago I was diagnosed with mild dissociative identity disorder.
During that time, I could feel a noisy second personality trying to take over my brain.
After the diagnosis, I planned to withdraw and rest.
But just this morning, a smiling man had come to campus promoting an app.
Five thousand yuan cash for every registration. Just like that.
Naturally, half the school signed up.
I was about to drop out. I needed the money more than most. So I downloaded it and registered too.
Back in the dorm, I scrolled through my phone.
The Yi Nian forum was full of excited posts from classmates.
"Five thousand just for signing up! This app is loaded!"
"Was gonna tell my friend to take the train and come collect, but my crappy phone won't even make calls now! Pissed!"
"Why shouldn't we expose our IDs? Is this a hookup app or something?"
"Listen to the rules! Do NOT view the admin's social feed!!!"
...
Amid the flood of posts, one caught my eye.
Don't view the admin's social feed?
Why?
I checked the app's interface again.
At this point, I only had one friend—"Administrator."
The rules above had been sent via direct message from this Administrator.
I tapped the Administrator's gray cloud avatar and found the social feed option.
After hesitating, I decided not to click.
Instead, I went back to the forum and clicked on the poster's profile.
The user's name was SmokeScreen.
The moment I opened the page, despite the sweltering summer dorm, goosebumps raced up my spine.
The latest post on SmokeScreen's social feed was a single line:
"We are ants! We are ants! We are ants!"
He sounded insane.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I tried to scroll further.
My phone buzzed.
I returned to the main page. The Administrator had posted a new announcement.
[First round of testing: Users must add five friends within one hour.]
Adding through the main page requires the other user's consent; adding by searching their ID does not.
[First round test countdown: 59 minutes]
[End time: 13:00 on the 29th]
[Yi Nian v1.0.1, participants: 842]
2
What the hell was this?
I felt anxious, a sense of being controlled by the app.
The clock on the wall read 12:05.
Was it my imagination, or was time moving faster than usual today?
I pulled my eyes back and kept scrolling.
What would happen if I didn't add friends?
Besides, what kind of garbage app needs to test its friend-adding feature?
I grumbled internally.
But my head throbbed with a dull ache.
Remembering SmokeScreen's posts, I forced myself to stay calm.
Rule two said not to accept anyone's friend request, so I couldn't let myself be added.
I still didn't know what the consequences would be.
But my instincts told me not to take risks.
My head hurt worse. I fumbled for painkillers while my other hand kept scrolling.
Then a new trending post appeared:
"My ID is 4998, everyone add me! Let's see if we can earn more money!"
The poster had used a selfie as their avatar. Someone I knew—my roommate.
Her name was Kira. Cute, sweet-hearted.
She wasn't well-off, but she worked hard at part-time jobs. Always sunny.
This was bad. If anyone knew her ID, she'd get flooded with friend requests.
And consent wasn't required.
Which meant—right now, Kira had already broken the app's rules.
What would happen to her?
"We are ants! We are ants!"
SmokeScreen's "voice" echoed in my skull.
Piercing. Shrill.
I clamped my hands over my ears, desperately trying to calm myself.
4
I pushed the thoughts aside and went back to SmokeScreen's page.
He'd posted a dense wall of updates.
I scrolled to the very bottom and read from the earliest:
"Did the admin's social feed use VR? Why does it feel so real?"
"I feel like my brain's being squeezed out of my body. Did you guys check the admin's feed?"
"This is terrifying. Someone audit this app's content?"
"Something's wrong! Did anyone else see it? What are those things? Have they always been right beside us?"
"Too many! Way too many! Those things... wait, I get it now. They're... they're all part of the same thing!"
"Oh my god..."
"Do NOT view the admin's social feed!"
"I think I messed up. Not sure. Will check."
"It's true. It... it saw me... hahaha..."
The further back I read, the more incoherent the posts became.
My head pounded harder, as if it might split open.
What about Kira?
She'd obviously broken the rules too. Had she seen something?
Kira was so kind. Please don't let anything happen to her.
I pushed through the pain and checked the forum, but Kira's post had already been buried.
I looked up to find the dorm empty.
Quiet. Dead silent.
Only the sound of the clock ticking.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
I finally noticed the minute hand pointing toward 12:30.
I had less than half my time left.
Bang bang bang!
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
A second later, a senior who usually did dorm inspections walked in.
Wearing a gleeful smile, she said:
"Sable! Did you download Yi Nian yet? They're running a promotion. I'll help you install it—let's add each other!"
5
The senior's eyes were locked on my phone.
It was obvious she'd already started the first round task.
My stomach dropped. I clutched my phone tight. "I haven't. I broke my phone yesterday."
"Really? What a coincidence."
She kept staring at my hand.
I had to shake my phone at her—black screen.
I'd just powered it off.
Finally, the senior sighed in disappointment.
She was about to leave when she stopped and turned back. "Oh! That roommate of yours—the cute one with the financial troubles who's always working part-time? This app pays you to download!"
I remembered Kira's post blasting her ID all over the forum. A quiet sigh inside.
"The one named—uh—Jiang? I don't know, she left early this morning."
"Okay then."
The senior finally hurried out.
Only after the footsteps faded did I turn my phone back on.
This app was wrong. I couldn't just sit here and wait!
I had to stop my roommate!
She'd saved money so painstakingly, right on the verge of graduation—she could NOT let this app hijack her mind!
I opened my call history, finger hovering over her number.
But just as I was about to press call—
I looked up. Something felt wrong.
I looked back at the phone screen.
My call history stared back at me.
"Huh?"
I scratched my head, confused.
"Was I... about to call someone?"
6
12:45.
Fifteen minutes left until the test ended.
I put my phone away and rubbed my temples, frustrated.
I was about to focus on the app's rules when a fuzzy voice drifted through my skull.
"Hey..."
The voice sounded exhausted.
Damn it.
I cursed under my breath. Must have forgotten to take my medication—the dissociative identity disorder was acting up again.
Sure enough, the voice grew clearer.
Fragmented, but intelligible.
"Ji..."
Ji?
Was my other personality hungry?
"Ang..."
Seriously hungry?
"Yunm..."
I rubbed my forehead in exasperment and dug through my drawer for the medication my doctor had prescribed.
The voice in my head grew louder as I searched.
It was as if she were using every ounce of strength to speak to me.
"Jiang Yun—"
"Miao—"
"Ji—"
I'd had enough.