Pico crashed when using freeRTOS library

[victpork]

It seems that whenever I try to access GPIO pins in freeRTOS the whole pico would crash, to a point that the USB isn't even responding that I have to do hard-reset via BOOTSEL. Am I doing it wrong? Here is my sample code, modifying from the freeRTOS sample bundled:

#include <NeoPixelConnect.h>

#include <FreeRTOS.h>
#include <task.h>
#include <map>
#include <EEPROM.h>



std::map<eTaskState, const char *> eTaskStateName{ { eReady, "Ready" }, { eRunning, "Running" }, { eBlocked, "Blocked" }, { eSuspended, "Suspended" }, { eDeleted, "Deleted" } };
void ps() {
  int tasks = uxTaskGetNumberOfTasks();
  TaskStatus_t *pxTaskStatusArray = new TaskStatus_t[tasks];
  unsigned long runtime;
  tasks = uxTaskGetSystemState(pxTaskStatusArray, tasks, &runtime);
  Serial.printf("# Tasks: %d\n", tasks);
  Serial.println("ID, NAME, STATE, PRIO, CYCLES");
  for (int i = 0; i < tasks; i++) {
    Serial.printf("%d: %-16s %-10s %d %lu\n", i, pxTaskStatusArray[i].pcTaskName, eTaskStateName[pxTaskStatusArray[i].eCurrentState], pxTaskStatusArray[i].uxCurrentPriority, pxTaskStatusArray[i].ulRunTimeCounter);
  }
  delete[] pxTaskStatusArray;
}


void blink(void *param) {
  (void)param;
  NeoPixelConnect p(25, MAXIMUM_NUM_NEOPIXELS, pio0, 0);
  while (true) {
    p.neoPixelSetValue(0, 255, 0, 0, true);
    delay(750);
    p.neoPixelSetValue(0, 0, 255, 0, true);
    delay(250);
    p.neoPixelSetValue(0, 0, 0, 255, true);
    delay(250);
  }
}


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  xTaskCreate(blink, "BLINK", 128, nullptr, 1, nullptr);
  delay(5000);
}

volatile int val = 0;
void loop() {
  Serial.printf("C0: Blue leader standing by...\n");
  ps();
  Serial.printf("val: %d\n", val);
  delay(1000);
}

// Running on core1
void setup1() {
  delay(5000);
  Serial.printf("C1: Red leader standing by...\n");
}

void loop1() {
  static int x = 0;
  Serial.printf("C1: Stay on target...\n");
  val++;
  if (++x < 10) {
    EEPROM.begin(512);
    EEPROM.write(0, x);
    EEPROM.commit();
  }
  delay(1000);
}

I modify the code so that instead of blinking an LED I change color to the onboard WS2818 instead (am using Sparkfun Pro Micro). TIA and please let me know if you need more info.