Chapter 17: Talisman Dao Surprise: Strawberry Bomb’s Square Dance

Shen Yan leaned against the old locust tree outside Medicine Valley, the sun scorching his eyelids. He had just crawled out of a mind-burning intellectual battle, his head buzzing like it had been formatted. His phone screen was cracked like a spiderweb, yet the Terminal Interface flickered intermittently, and a line of green text suddenly popped up: “Warning: High-intensity talisman energy fluctuation detected, coordinates—three kilometers southeast, Talisman Dao competition venue.”

He squinted, his lips twitching. “Again? Does this girl treat talisman paper like snacks, handing them out to anyone she meets?”

Before his words finished, a burst of laughter mixed with a elder’s roar came from afar: “What a disgrace! This is a martial arts arena, not a street performance!”

Shen Yan sighed, straightened his crooked glasses, and slowly stood up. He knew that behind the laughter and curses, there was likely a girl with twin ponytails, gnawing on candied hawthorn, stirring up trouble.

On the arena at that moment, Yu Xiaotang stood in the center, her goose-yellow robe gently billowing in the wind, her coin hair ties clinking softly. She held her hands behind her back, looking obedient and nervous, but in reality, her fingertips were swiftly sliding inside her Cosmic Bag, a miniature talisman program wirelessly connecting through her Talisman Brush into the opponent’s “Beast Control Talisman” Core Module.

“Replace the ‘combat command’ with a ‘square dance loop’… add a strawberry-flavored particle effect…” she muttered quietly. “It shouldn’t explode, right? At most, they’ll just dance a bit more cheerfully.”

As the referee gave the command, the opponent slapped out talisman paper.

A flash of yellow light, and five armored rhinoceroses appeared out of nowhere, nostrils spewing flames, hooves stirring wind, charging straight toward Yu Xiaotang.

The entire audience held their breath.

The next moment, the five rhinoceroses abruptly halted, twisting their waist, swinging their hips, lifting their legs in unison, movements so synchronized they seemed rehearsed thousands of times. Accompanied by background music that inexplicably emerged, they danced a standard square dance.

The spectator seats erupted in roaring laughter.

“Hahaha, isn’t this the dance team led by Aunt Wang from the east side of the city? Even the moves are exactly the same!”

“Is that rhinoceros wearing a floral scarf stepping off the beat?”

The Mystic Gate elder trembled with rage, his beard shaking. “Absurd! Who allowed you to disrupt the competition with such deviant methods?”

Yu Xiaotang blinked her eyes, looking innocent. “I don’t know either, maybe they’re just too passionate about community cultural activities? Why don’t you ask them which community class they signed up for?”

The elder nearly choked on his breath.

While everyone’s attention was captivated by the dancing rhinoceroses, Yu Xiaotang flipped off the arena, blending lightly into the crowd. Her gaze swept around, locking onto Shen Yan, who was approaching the venue.

Her lips curled upward, like a kitten that had stolen fish.

She approached in a few steps, and as they brushed past each other, her fingertip flicked, and a small pink talisman paper with a strawberry pattern slapped onto the inside of Shen Yan’s collar.

“Source code candy, you should eat it~” she leaned close to his ear, her voice sweet enough to drip honey, then stuck out her tongue and turned to run.

Shen Yan paused for a moment, reached out to touch his collar, but found nothing, only feeling a slight warmth there, like being touched by sunlight.

Before he could react, a unified chorus suddenly erupted behind him—

“Love you walking alone in the dark alley—”

The five butt-twisting rhinoceroses sang together, their voices booming, pitch precise, the synthesized effect comparable to a broadcast station announcement.

The entire venue fell silent for a second before erupting into chaos.

“They can even sing?!”

“Who wrote this program? Can I buy a copy? My spiritual pets fight all the time—it’d be great if I could make them love singing and dancing instead!”

The elder’s face turned ashen as he slammed his palm against the ground. “Lock down the venue! No one leaves! Find out who tampered with this!”

But it was too late.

Yu Xiaotang had already slipped into the alley behind the snack stalls, a freshly bought candied hawthorn stick clenched between her teeth. The bright red hawthorns were coated in a crystalline sugar shell, making her eyes sparkle. She glanced back at the chaotic venue, a faint green light flickering briefly in the talisman paper tucked in her hair—like a signal connection notice.

Data link established.

Temporary communication channel successfully activated.

She grinned, crunching loudly on the candied hawthorn.

Shen Yan stood at the edge of the venue, watching the pandemonium unfold inside. The dancing rhinos were passionately belting out the second verse, elders were chasing down the referees for answers, and spectators were busy taking photos and recording videos. The entire Talisman Dao competition had been forcibly transformed into a large-scale folk arts performance.

He shook his head helplessly, tapping twice on his cracked screen to pull up the background log.

“Strange… that audio command just now was actually broadcast via the local talisman network protocol, and the encryption method… looks a bit like a voice synthesis module I casually wrote last week?” he muttered to himself. “Could it be… she copied and modified my code?”

As he pondered, his collar warmed up again.

He reached to touch it and finally found the strawberry talisman paper.

Pink background with red patterns, drawn quite cutely. On the back was a line of small text: “If the run is successful, remember to leave a five-star review for a cashback reward.”

Shen Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “This girl, using me as a test server, huh?”

He initially wanted to tear it off, but his fingers hesitated and withdrew.

“Wait… this energy frequency…” He squinted, holding the talisman paper up to the sunlight. “It resembles the resonance wavelength of a Source Code Spiritual Root. Could she be trying… to remotely call my system?”

At this thought, he suddenly grew wary.

But then again, if this talisman truly had issues, the elders would have detected it earlier. Besides, given Yu Xiaotang’s personality, if she really wanted to mess with him, she’d probably write an “automatic pants-dropping talisman” and stick it on him—that would be more in character.

“Forget it, I’ll keep it for now.” He slipped the talisman paper into his phone case. “I’ll decompile it later and see what she stuffed inside.”

The setting sun cast long shadows as the crowd remained noisy.

The dancing rhinos finally tired out, collapsing on the ground panting heavily, still humming the chorus under their breath. The elders stormed off in anger, and the referees announced that this year’s Talisman Dao competition would end early, with reforms to the format next year.

Shen Yan stood on the steps, watching the figure bouncing away in the distance at the alley entrance, still holding half a candied hawthorn stick and munching as she walked.

He couldn’t help but smile.

Just as he was about to catch up and ask what she was really up to, his phone vibrated.

The terminal popped up a new notice: “Tracking signal source activation detected. Target: Host. Signal strength: Stable. Source: Strawberry-shaped talisman paper.”

Immediately after, a second message appeared: “Warning: Talisman paper contains an embedded recursive call function. Unauthorized execution may trigger a chain reaction.”

Shen Yan frowned.

Before he could think deeper, the Talisman Paper inside his collar suddenly grew hot again, its temperature rapidly rising until it began to glow faintly.

He hurriedly reached in to pull it out.

But just as the tip of his finger touched the Talisman Paper, a buzzing sound echoed in his mind, as if a strange piece of Code had been forcibly injected.

A flash appeared before his eyes—

It wasn’t reality.

It was the Code world.

In a pitch-black Terminal Interface, three lines of green text emerged:

“Dear user, hello.”

“You have successfully accessed the ‘Strawberry Bomb · Emotion-Enhanced Edition’ experience Program.”

“Countdown: 59:58…”

(End of Chapter)