Familiar stage, familiar set.

The lighting technician unleashed a dazzling display that could induce epilepsy, kicking off the show.

In the pitch-black contestant area, the seven revival match writers, including Feng Bujue, were already in position.

The camera operator for camera one swung the lens with a certain frequency, creating a dispensable sense of dynamism.

The director gave an order through the headset microphone, and the live DJ started playing loud, rhythmic music.

The next second, the host appeared on stage.

Oscar was still Oscar. Today, he wore a silver-gray casual suit jacket, dark jeans, an earpiece in his left ear, and a microphone by his mouth.

As with every episode, he remained unfazed by the surrounding square dance music, and simply walked calmly to the center of the stage.

The lights suddenly stopped, focusing on him.

Oscar looked into the camera and recited the opening lines in a clear voice: "Welcome to… I Am a Writer! I'm your host, Oscar."

With that, he gave a slight bow.

The lights illuminated the audience at the right moment. Under the director's command, the four cameras responsible for focusing on the audience began to move, and the lens swept over the crowd as applause and cheers erupted.

The staff had done this kind of opening countless times; they were experts. Unless Oscar accidentally fell while going on stage, it would always be a one-take.

"Friends in the audience, in front of the television, and on the internet…" After a brief interlude of background music, Oscar immediately continued, "Today is a special day." He paused for a few seconds, turning slightly to the side. "Today, on the stage of I Am a Writer, we have gathered seven… very familiar contestants."

As expected of a professional host, he combined his tone and small gestures perfectly. While speaking, Oscar naturally took a few steps back and came to the front of the contestant seats.

"Since the first episode of I Am a Writer aired, we have experienced twenty such nights," Oscar continued. "During this time, our production team has welcomed a total of twenty-six writers with unique styles and unforgettable personalities." He took a deep breath. "But in the end… only seven can reach the stage of our grand finale…" At this point, he raised his arm and gestured forty-five degrees upwards at the large screen on the stage.

The screen showed photos of six writers, each of their appearances and expressions Photoshopped to look like mafia members, with their pen names marked below the photos.

Next to the six photos, there was a vacancy, which displayed a black shadow with a large question mark.

"Now… six contestants have already gone through many trials and entered the hall of the grand finale, but…" Oscar continued in a dramatic tone, "There is still one vacancy…" He waved his arm again, pointing to the contestant seats next to him. "Who will this chance to enter the finals fall to…"

"Ye Zhihuo! Ye Zhihuo!" Before the host could finish speaking, a group of people in the audience began to shout. Their slogans were uniform, their shouts were loud, and their reactions were quick; they had the flair of professionals.

The fans of the other writers also belatedly shouted the names of the writers they were supporting, but these shouts were mostly disorganized and scattered.

"I Am a Writer - Revival Night. Now…" Oscar did a side-slip, “…let the curtain rise.”

After Oscar finished saying this, the lights and live DJ made another commotion under the director's instructions…

Next was the contestant introduction segment (as with previous recordings, the parts about reading sponsor names and commercials were recorded separately, so Oscar's dialogue sometimes seemed a bit disjointed). Oscar read, "Okay, enough small talk, let's see who the seven contestants standing on this 'stage of comeback' are…"

The light above contestant number one lit up in response, illuminating a young man wearing glasses and slightly overweight.

"Contestant number one, Qishui." This time, Oscar didn't give a long, detailed introduction, nor did he read the production team's "editor's comments."

Because… after a long period of continuous reform, the show had eliminated this segment and replaced it with subtitles at the bottom of the screen to introduce the contestants.

There were two main reasons for this change: first, since only one person was eliminated each episode, many contestants would appear repeatedly, so there was no need to read the introductions every time; second… the time saved could be used to insert more commercials.

"Contestant number two, Yamucha." Oscar continued his introduction, and the lights above the contestant seats lit up one by one as he spoke.

Although he had a pen name that sounded like he could compete in the World Martial Arts Tournament, the writer himself was just a rather delicate-looking boy. One look at his face, and you could tell that he was at most twenty years old.

In fact, Yamucha was only nineteen years old this year. He started writing in high school, dropped out in his third year, and became a full-time writer. Last year, he became a front-line online writer with a very popular xuanhuan novel.

"Contestant number three, Gaige Chunfeng Chui Dadi," Oscar said again.

This was a middle-aged man around forty years old wearing black-rimmed glasses. His series of science fiction novels were very popular. Da Di Shu had worked as a journalist in his early years and later became a freelance writer. Initially, he wrote a science fiction novel of several hundred thousand words out of interest, but he was rejected by publishers many times. So… he tried serializing it online. Unexpectedly, it became a hit. As for his pen name… it was actually just a phrase that popped up when he randomly typed gg on the keyboard. When he registered his writer account, he didn't think he would become popular at all. He had the mentality of "Anyway, no one wants this manuscript, so I might as well post it for people to read casually," so he chose a random pen name…

"Contestant number four, Electric Saw Rose."

This was a "personality writer" known for her extremely gothic writing style and appearance. To be honest… her writing wasn't popular; it could be said to be very niche. Fortunately, her father was a wealthy businessman and knew some people in the publishing industry… and so, her strange articles were printed and sold, causing a certain social reaction… Some said she was pretentious, some said she was cynical, and some (mostly minors) regarded her as a spiritual mentor. But in any case… whether it was criticism or praise, someone commenting meant that someone was paying attention. In this era of colliding ideas, her novels could be considered unique.

"Contestant number five, Fei Jiangjun."

This was a young man in his late twenties. His face was heavily powdered, he had small eyes and side-swept bangs, and he was dressed quite fashionably. At first glance, he looked like a Korean male celebrity. He was also a veteran online writer, and he had written popular works in popular genres such as urban and xuanhuan. But he had never really become a major star. His slightly weak writing style and fixed plot patterns were often criticized. Comments like "poor writing, loves to add filler, and creativity is becoming more and more boring" could be said to be his daily routine.

Oscar walked and introduced, finally… arriving at the seats of the last two contestants.

The order of the revival match contestant seats was based on the popularity of online voting. The higher the ranking, the further back the seat, so Feng Bujue was contestant number six today.

To be honest, Feng Bujue hadn't expected that Brother "Qishui," who had once appeared with him in the same episode, would be the least popular of the seven. Although being able to make it into the top seven out of twenty eliminated contestants was not bad, this feeling of being in last place… probably wasn't too good.

"Contestant number six…" When Oscar came to Brother Jue's seat, he made brief eye contact with him. "…Bujue."

Two seconds later, Oscar turned around and smoothly continued, "And the last… contestant number seven, Ye Zhihuo."

Previously, every time he announced a contestant's pen name, there would be cheers and applause from the audience, and these waves of cheers were increasing. Until the introduction of Ye Zhihuo, it reached a boiling point.

Ye Zhihuo was a man in his late twenties who looked unremarkable. But he was a newly emerging online god this year. With an urban masterpiece, he was in the limelight for a time. The popularity of his work was even comparable to first-tier top writers such as Xuan Tianzong and Shucai Guaguo (see I Am a Writer - Please Feel Free to Complain).

"Okay, according to convention…" After the audience quieted down slightly, Oscar returned to the center of the stage with a smile on his face, "...next should be the segment of naming this episode, but…" He changed the subject. "This episode is quite special, because we already have a title." He raised his hand and gestured at the big screen.

Indeed, the words "Revival Night" were already displayed at the top of the screen.

"Therefore, we will no longer have the naming segment this time," Oscar said, glancing at the camera with a mysterious look. "And…" After saying these two words, he paused for an uncomfortably long time before continuing, "...the changes in this episode are far more than just this one segment. In the revival match, we will see completely new rules!"

The DJ then played a few sound effects, and the lights flickered suddenly, creating a sense of tension.

"Hehe… everyone doesn't need to be too nervous," Oscar said with a smile. "How about this… all of the contestants participating in this episode are our old friends, so at the beginning of this episode, let's have them greet everyone one by one and say a few words about their feelings on returning."

At this time, Fei Ran said through the headset: "Oscar, do it in reverse order."

The director was undoubtedly helping Ye Zhihuo, because for such stock phrases, there were only a few variations. It was better to say them first, and by the time the last few people spoke, the content would definitely be somewhat repetitive.

After receiving the instructions, Oscar inconspicuously came to Ye Zhihuo's side. "Okay, let's start with Ye Zhihuo first."

Ye Zhihuo smiled at the camera and said, "Hello everyone, I'm Ye Zhihuo. I'm back again, and I hope to go further on this stage. I look forward to your support."

These were very simple words, and were considered quite standard. His fans in the audience responded loudly.

Next… Oscar's difficult part arrived…

"Hehe… Bujue," Oscar's smile immediately became a little stiff. "Say a few words…"

"Let's skip the self-introduction; you've already said it." While speaking, Feng Bujue frowned, turned his face to the side, and kept his eyes on the big screen. "As for my feelings on returning… let's just use the line 'I guess I'm still not used to going from obscurity to being liked'…" He paused for a moment. "But there's another thing I've wanted to say for a few minutes…" He said in a deep voice, "What's with the promotional image on the big screen showing seven missing grand finalist contestants…? Did the Photoshop guy really have to make it look like a list of wanted criminals… Are we choosing writers or the Seven Warlords of the Sea…?"