Chapter 15 A Familiar Stage

The familiar stage, the familiar set.

The lighting technician initiated a dazzling display that could induce epilepsy, drawing back the curtain on this show.

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

The cameraman at camera one swayed the lens at a certain frequency, creating a dynamic effect, albeit a negligible one.

The director gave an order through the microphone on his headset, and the on-site DJ started playing loud music with a strong beat.

The next second, the host appeared.

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

As with every previous episode, he remained unfazed by the square dance music around him, calmly walking to the center of the stage.

The lights suddenly stopped and focused on him.

Oscar looked into the camera and recited the opening remarks in a clear voice, "Welcome to… I Am A Writer! I am 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. As the applause and cheers rose from the audience, the cameras swept over them.

The staff had done such openings countless times and were well-versed in them. Unless Oscar accidentally fell while walking onto the stage, it would always be a one-take.

"Friends watching on-site, in front of your TVs, and on the internet…" After a short segment of background music, Oscar immediately continued, "Today is a special day." He paused for a few seconds and turned 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, his tone and small gestures were perfectly coordinated. While speaking, Oscar had already taken a few steps back naturally, arriving in 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 unique and unforgettable writers." 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, angled it upwards at forty-five degrees, and gestured towards the large screen.

The screen displayed the photos of six writers, each with a style and expression that had been photoshopped to make them look like members of the mafia. Their pen names were marked below their photos.

Next to those six photos was a blank space, showing a silhouette with a large question mark.

"Now… six contestants have already undergone numerous trials and entered the hall of the grand finale, but…" Oscar continued in a modulated tone, "There is still one vacancy…" He waved his arm again, pointing towards the contestant seats beside him, "And who will be the one to seize this opportunity to enter the finals…"

"Ye Zhihuo! Ye Zhihuo!" Before the host could finish speaking, a group of people in the audience had already started shouting. Their slogans were uniform, their voices were loud, and their reactions were quick, showing the flair of professionals.

The fans of the other writers belatedly shouted out the names of the writers they were supporting, but most of these calls were disjointed and sounded scattered.

"I Am A Writer—Resurrection Night. Now…" Oscar did a side-shifting glide, "…let the curtain rise."

After Oscar finished saying that, the lights and the on-site DJ made another clamorous ruckus under the director's instructions…

Next was the contestant introduction segment (as with previous recordings, the segments for reading out sponsors and advertisements were recorded separately, so Oscar's dialogue sometimes jumped around). Oscar recited, "Alright, without further ado, let's see who the seven contestants standing on this 'Stage of Counterattack' are…"

The light above the first contestant's seat turned on in response, illuminating a slightly overweight young man wearing glasses.

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

Because… after a long period of continuous reform, the show had already removed this segment, and instead added the contestant introductions below the screen in the form of subtitles during post-production.

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

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

Although he had chosen a pen name that sounded like he was going to compete in the Tenkaichi Budōkai, the writer himself was just a rather delicate-looking young man. Just by looking at his face, you could tell that he was no more than twenty years old.

In fact, Yamucha was indeed only nineteen years old this year. He started writing in his first year of high school, dropped out in his third year, and began writing full-time. Last year, he joined the ranks of first-tier online writers with a very popular xuanhuan novel.

"Contestant number three, Reform Spring Breeze Blows Across the Land," Oscar said again.

This was a middle-aged man of about forty wearing black-framed glasses. His series of science fiction novels sold very well. Uncle Dadi 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 it was rejected by publishers multiple times. So… he tried serializing it online. Unexpectedly, it became an instant hit. As for his pen name… it was actually just a word group that randomly popped up when he tapped the keyboard twice while registering his writer account, because he never thought he would become popular when registering his account. He casually chose it with the mentality of, "Since no one wants this manuscript anyway, I might as well post it for people to take a look at."

"Contestant number four, Chainsaw Rose."

This was a "personality writer," known for her extremely gothic writing style and attire. To be honest… her writing didn't sell well; it could be said to be very niche. But 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 being melodramatic, 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, having comments meant that someone was paying attention. In this era of colliding ideas, her novels could be considered unique.

"Contestant number five, Bandit General."

This was a young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His face was heavily made-up to appear very white, with small eyes, slanted bangs, and rather fashionable clothes. At first glance, he looked quite like a Korean male celebrity. He was also considered a veteran online writer, and had quite a few popular works in popular genres such as urban and xuanhuan. But he had never really become a big name, and his slightly thin writing style and fixed plot routines were often criticized. Comments like "poor writing, loves to pad, creativity is becoming more and more uninteresting" could be said to be his daily routine.

Oscar walked and introduced the contestants, finally arriving in front of the seats of the last two contestants.

The order of the seats for the resurrection match contestants was arranged according to the popularity of the online votes. The higher the ranking, the further back the seat, so Feng Bujue was contestant number six today.

To be honest, Feng Bujue really didn't expect 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 break into the top seven out of the twenty eliminated contestants was not bad, this feeling of being at the bottom… probably wasn't too good.

"Contestant number six…" When Oscar arrived in front of Jue-ge's seat, he even had a brief eye contact with him, "…Bujue."

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

Previously, every time he announced a contestant's pen name, there would be a wave of cheers and applause in the audience, and these waves of cheers were increasing. Until the final 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, rising to prominence with an urban masterpiece. The popularity of his work was even comparable to that of first-tier top writers such as Xuantianzong and Vegetables and Fruits (see I Am A Writer—Feel Free to Complain).

"Alright, as usual…" After the audience quieted down slightly, Oscar returned to the center of the stage with a smile, "…next should be the segment for naming this episode, but…" He changed the topic, "This episode is rather special, because we already have a title." He raised his hand and gestured to the large screen.

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

"Therefore, we will no longer have a naming segment in this episode." Oscar glanced at the camera with a mysterious look, "And…" After saying these two words, he had an uncomfortable long pause, and then continued, "…the changes in this episode are far more than just this one segment. In the resurrection match, we will see completely new rules!"

The DJ then added a few sound effects, and the lights flickered suddenly, creating a slightly tense atmosphere.

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

At this time, Fei Ran said through the headset, "Oscar, start from the back."

The director was undoubtedly helping Ye Zhihuo, because there were only a few of those formulaic greetings. It was better to say them earlier, and the content would definitely be a bit repetitive when the last few people spoke.

After receiving the instruction, Oscar moved to Ye Zhihuo's side without any change in expression: "Okay, let's start with Ye Zhihuo first."

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

Simple words, considered decent, and his fans in the audience responded loudly.

Then… Oscar's difficult moment arrived again…

"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." When Feng Bujue spoke, he frowned, turned his face to the side, and kept his eyes fixed on the big screen, "As for my feelings on returning… let's just use the sentence, 'I guess I'm still not used to it, going from obscurity to being liked by someone'…" He paused for a moment, "But there's something else, I've been wanting to say it for a few minutes…" he said in a deep voice, "What's with the promotional picture on the big screen, with one of the final contestants missing… did the photoshop editor have to make it look like a wanted list… is this a writer selection or a selection of Shichibukai…"