Chapter 79: The Riot Triggered by a Programming Game

Shen Yan leaned against the stone pillar, his hand still resting on the rune-covered stone slab in his pocket. The Blood Moon had just faded, and the floor tiles in front of the temple were still slightly warm, as if recovering from a forced restart. His head buzzed, as if a hundred thousand threads were running loops simultaneously, but the corners of his mouth curled upward—the operation just now had finally forced the system to synchronize.

“Hey, don’t just slump there.” Luo Li walked over, her tail lightly flicking away a patch of rubble in front of him. “We agreed to teach them how to write code.”

“I’m just loading the startup items.” Shen Yan blinked, pulling out his phone. The screen flickered a few times before lighting up, and a notice popped up on the Terminal Interface: 【Mental Power remaining 37%, recommended to enter sleep mode】.

He tapped to close it directly.

A group of little demons gathered in a circle in the square, chattering as they stared at the stone slab in his hand, their eyes gleaming as if they had just discovered a new version of a secret manual. A fluffy little fox demon crouched at the front, still holding half a sugar cake in its mouth, its eyes shining like freshly powered LED lights.

“Come on, let’s start the basics.” Shen Yan cleared his throat, swiping his fingertip through the air to summon a black-background, green-text visualization interface. “Today, we won’t talk about any advanced algorithms. We’ll just play a game—Snake.”

“Snake?” One little demon’s ears twitched. “Is it the kind of spiritual beast that breathes fire?”

“No, it’s a modular program designed to train your perception of Spiritual Energy Flow.” As Shen Yan spoke, he encapsulated the basic guidance script into the mini-game. “You control this snake to eat light points. Each section it eats activates a segment of the meridians in your body, equivalent to completing a small circulation cycle.”

He demonstrated on the spot, lightly tapping directions on the screen. The snake, composed of spiritual light, slowly moved, its tail growing longer after eating a light point. Simultaneously, the temporary rune marks on the little demons’ wrists lit up.

“Wow! I feel warmth in my Dantian!”

“Me too, me too!”

Instantly, over a dozen of them crowded around, clamoring to connect to the client. Shen Yan had no choice but to open a local connection, assigning each of them a test account.

“Remember the rules: no modifying the code, no unauthorized access to core processes. Otherwise, if the furnace explodes, don’t blame me for not warning you.” After saying this, he specifically glanced at the fox demon holding the sugar cake.

The other grinned, wagging its tail. “Don’t worry, you saved me. I know the rules.”

Five minutes later, thirty little demons sat cross-legged in unison, their eyes gleaming as they swiped their fingers through the air, muttering “up, down, left, right” as if reciting some ancient incantation.

Shen Yan adjusted his glasses, about to praise their progress, when his phone suddenly vibrated wildly.

【Warning: Anomalous sub-process injection Detected】

【Source: Client ID-07 (Fox Demon)】

【Command Type: Infinite Recursion + Spiritual Energy Overload】

His eyelids twitched. “Who told you to add a self-destruct program!”

Before the words finished, the Spiritual Energy in the entire square suddenly became imbalanced. The snakes that had obediently been eating light points suddenly began to grow wildly, their tails coiling around the users, while the Spiritual Flow within them went berserk, as if stuffed with an overclocked turbine.

“Ouch, my meridians are about to snap!”

“This isn’t Snake, this is Tribulation Snake!”

Boom—

A deafening roar erupted from the direction of the cafeteria, the roof blasted skyward by a surge of Demon Power, tiles scattering everywhere as flames shot up three zhang high, looking exactly like an oversized skyrocket set off for the New Year.

Shen Yan jolted to his feet: “My main server hasn’t even been authorized for updates yet!”

He immediately drew command lines in the air, his voice cracking: “Terminate all Snake processes! Kill -9 all running instances!”

A flash of blue light sparked at his fingertip, a string of resetting Code racing out along the Spiritual Energy network, forcibly pulling thirty little demons on the verge of exploding back from the brink of death.

But it was still a step too late.

The cafeteria was gone.

Only a solitary pillar remained standing there, half a charred menu hanging from it, reading “Today’s Special: Spirit Rice Stir-fried Eggs.”

A group of little demons, their fur puffed up like dandelions, crawled out of the ruins, faces covered in soot, collectively protesting: “What happened to the promised casual mini-game? We almost had our souls leave our bodies!”

“Who did this?” Luo Li’s voice was cold, her Nine Tails slowly unfurling behind her like nine Firewalls loading Antivirus Programs.

The crowd automatically parted to make way.

The fox demon cowered behind the pillar, tail curled around sugar pancake crumbs, stubbornly insisting: “I just… slightly optimized the ending effects, added a full-screen explosion Easter egg… I didn’t actually hurt anyone.”

“Oh?” Luo Li stepped forward, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck as if lifting a chick, “Next time you mess with the Code without permission, I’ll Compile you into the Terminal System, making you an eternal low-level antivirus service, scanning for Viruses every single day, understand?”

The little demons burst into laughter.

The fox demon’s face turned green: “Don’t! I still want to learn how to make UI Interfaces!”

“Go copy the ‘Basic Security Protocol’ a hundred times.” Luo Li released her grip, casually sticking a silencing talisman on his forehead, “Now, immediately, right away.”

Shen Yan sat on the stone steps, his Temples throbbing, his phone completely frozen, the Screen stuck on 【System Busy, Please Try Again Later】.

“I already set a root Permission password… who taught you guys sudo privilege escalation?” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, his tone like a project lead utterly screwed over by interns.

Luo Li walked over and sat down beside him, her earrings slightly warm: “Next time, add an identity verification, like Bloodline recognition or heartbeat frequency matching.”

“That’s too troublesome.” Shen Yan glanced at her, “Might as well directly bind it to an Emotional Variable, only those who genuinely want to learn can Run it.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the Terminal actually Restarted on its own, popping up a new Notice: 【Co-Covenant Partner Permission Request Detected, Grant Teaching Management Authority?】

Below were two buttons, one reading “Agree,” the other “Refuse.”

Luo Li didn’t look at the Screen but suddenly turned to him: “Did you… leave a Backdoor from the start?”

“Of course not.” Shen Yan played dumb, “I’m all about rules, never secretly open API Interfaces.”

“Is that so?” She sneered, “Then explain why my Demon Power fluctuations can directly activate your Debug mode?”

Shen Yan coughed dryly twice, just about to change the subject when a commotion arose in the distance.

Several little demons came running over, carrying the shattered stone slab, the Code on it now blurred by the smoke, but one line in the middle was still legible: “If I meet you, then never crash.”

“Teacher Shen!” The leading little demon held up a stone slab. “We want to carve this in the center of the square! As the school motto!”

“No!” Shen Yan stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over his phone. “This constitutes a severe case of unauthorized access! Delete it immediately!”

“Why delete it?” Luo Li’s lips curved slightly. “It’s quite accurate.”

“This isn’t Code, it’s a confession!” He waved his hands anxiously. “It’ll be reported as a System Vulnerability!”

“But it executed successfully,” Luo Li said softly, her gaze resting on his face. “And there was no Error Reporting.”

Shen Yan opened his mouth, unsure whether to refute or rewrite the Logic.

At that moment, the fox spirit who had been punished to copy the Protocol crouched in a corner, munching on a newly received sugar cake while muttering, “It could have been cooler… add a boss battle, then a two-player co-op mode, that’d be so much more exciting.”

He secretly pulled out a small stone shard, gathered Demon Power at the tip of his finger, and quietly carved a few lines on the back.

Just as he finished the last stroke, the stone shard suddenly emitted a faint glow.

The next second, the entire square’s floor tiles began to tremble. A massive Formation Diagram composed of Spiritual Patterns slowly emerged, its edges perfectly matching the energy ripples of the Western Wasteland Gate.

Shen Yan’s pupils contracted. He grabbed the stone shard and saw written clearly on the back:

“Start Command: When I write this Code, I have already decided to become the first developer.”

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(End of Chapter)