Just as Morgans was about to beg Ron not to destroy his airship in a fit of rage, he froze when he saw the floor completely covered in rectangular "bricks." He blinked, confused. "Ron, where'd you get all these bricks? They're so thin. You can't even build a decent house with them."
He picked one up and turned it over, examining it like some bizarre artifact.
"But it does feel nice in the hand. Would be great for smacking someone in the head." As he spoke, Morgans even tried biting it with his beak.
"Careful, don't chip your teeth." Ron chuckled as he continued organizing the phones scattered everywhere, lining them up on the table. Each individual phone wasn't large, but ten thousand of them filled the entire table, stacked up to the height of a cup.
"Ron, what exactly is this thing? And you… you look completely different from earlier. It's like you've come back to life." Morgans stared at the "brick" in his hand curiously, spotted a button on the side, and pressed it without thinking.
Right as he did, Ron's voice came through. "That's a phone. It's a good thing."
"It lit up! It lit up! Is it gonna explode?!" Morgans jumped, almost dropping the device.
"Relax. It's not a bomb." Ron's words finally calmed Morgans down as he continued poking at the phone curiously, though he still didn't understand a thing.
Seeing Morgans' confused face, Ron grinned. "Makes sense you don't get it. I'll teach you how to use it in a sec." He suddenly remembered Morgans' special ability—to communicate with birds and command them. His entire newspaper operation relied on carrier pigeons that flew to every corner of the sea. That meant he could use Morgans to distribute phones all over the world and grow the user base in no time!
So Ron pulled out his own phone and patiently guided him. "Morgans, first off, this isn't a brick, and it's definitely not food. It's called a phone. It's an entertainment device. This button here is the power button. Hold it down to turn it on or off. Give it a shot."
Morgans nodded, then pointed to an icon on the screen that looked like a musical note. "Okay, but what's this little thing?"
"That's called an app. This one is TikTok, and yeah, it's for entertainment too," Ron explained carefully. After all, Morgans was his first user. "Tap it. I'll help you register."
Even though the world didn't have SIM cards, the system required real-name verification to register an account, probably to avoid trolls and nonsense. Soon enough, Morgans had registered, officially becoming the first TikTok user besides Ron.
Ron briefly explained TikTok's core function, watching short videos. But since there was only one video in the whole app, there wasn't much to see yet.
"Ron, how did you get in there?" Morgans suddenly shouted. He had scrolled to Ron's video—although "scroll" might've been generous, considering it was the only video available.
"I told you, I filmed that myself."
"I want one too!" Morgans excitedly pointed the camera at his giant bird head and, under Ron's guidance, recorded and uploaded his own short video.
"Alright, that's enough for now." Ron cut him off before Morgans got addicted. "From now on, if you need something, just message me or video call—but don't spam me."
"Message? Video call? What the heck are those?" Morgans scratched his head. His brain clearly couldn't absorb all this tech at once.
...
Half an hour later, Morgans finally understood the basics of TikTok. His face lit up with excitement. "Ron, how come this little picture isn't my face? I want to use a handsome one!"
"Easy. Open the camera, flip it to front-facing, take a pic, and upload it."
"Wha–? Say that again, slower."
"…First, open the camera."
"This thing… wait, this phone can be a camera too?" Only then did Ron realize he'd only taught Morgans how to use TikTok, not the actual phone. He ended up spending another ten minutes walking him through the basics.
After learning the core features, Morgans was utterly stunned. Then, his feathers fluffed out and he started shouting excitedly.
"Damn it, why didn't you bring this out earlier?! Our whole news agency is starving for something like this!"
"I can take photos anywhere, anytime, no film needed! And I can record video too?! It's insane!" Morgans went on a selfie spree, snapping seventy or eighty shots before settling on a passable photo for his TikTok profile.
Ron didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was still annoyed that the system had required a secret code to unlock. If he hadn't burned out from battle fatigue, he might've never triggered the system at all.
"You're unbelievable, Ron! How the hell did you pull this off?" Morgans was still frantically clicking away, taking photos of everything in sight. The size was perfect, it was portable, and he didn't need any film—this thing was a reporter's holy grail.
"You've been hiding this from me for so long…" Morgans narrowed his eyes, staring suspiciously at Ron, like he was trying to read his soul. "...So, uh, would you believe me if I said this is my Devil Fruit ability?" Ron scratched his head awkwardly, throwing out a lazy excuse.
"What?!" Morgans squawked like someone had stepped on his tail. "Didn't you say you'd never eat a Devil Fruit? When the hell did that change?!"
Ron: ???
He actually bought that? Fine by me. I didn't feel like explaining anyway.
"I always wondered what they tasted like. Would've been a shame to die without knowing. So I ate one. Tasted awful. Really disgusting." Ron even faked gagging to sell it, which only made Morgans laugh harder.
"Haha! Ron, give me a few more of these phones! I'll hand them out to my staff!" Morgans was quick to get back on topic. If his reporters each had a phone, they could gather first-hand news at lightning speed. The influence of the World Economic News would skyrocket!
Ron had expected this. He pretended to think about it for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. What are friends for?"
Morgans was thrilled. He reached out and grabbed a couple dozen phones, hugging them like treasure.
"But these things aren't cheap. Even with our friendship, I've got to charge you something. One hundred Berries per phone is fair, right?"
"One hundred Berries?!" Morgans was stunned, staring at Ron like he'd lost his mind. He'd thought high-tech devices like this would cost at least ten thousand Berries apiece. He never expected them to be this cheap!
"Ron, don't hold back for my sake. I'm loaded!"
"I'm not holding back. I'm not trying to get rich selling phones. Besides, what would I even do with a pile of money?" Ron said casually.
Morgan went quiet for a moment, then looked up at Ron with serious eyes. "Ron… I don't know what to say. From now on, you're even more than a brother to me!"
With that, Morgans ran over to the bed Ron had been lying on earlier. He reached underneath and pulled out a hidden box. This had originally been the boss's personal lounge, and the box was where he stashed his rainy day funds.
"There's a billion Berries in here. I'm using it all to buy phones!"
"…You sure you need that many?" Ron raised an eyebrow. Then he realized how dumb that question was.
"Hahaha! Ron, my staff are spread across half the world! A billion Berries only gets me ten million phones! That's not nearly enough!" Morgans' eyes blazed with ambition. "My goal is to become the King of Global News!"
Ron shrugged. "If you've got the money, I've got the phones."
"But first, find a hidden place to land. There's no way we can store ten million phones here. Also, I have one condition."
(To be continued.)