The next day, at first light, dozens of News Pigeons flew in formation towards the Navy Headquarters Base, their bodies laden with as many phones as they could carry.
For every phone they transported, they earned a commission, so these News Pigeons were as excited as if they had been injected with stimulants.
The income from just these two days had already surpassed their total income from the previous six months!
The phone sales at the Marineford had completely "blown up"!
The newsstand was packed with Marine soldiers, all there to buy phones.
However, these new recruits were all tight-lipped, each one cautious to the core, which meant the phone craze was temporarily only circulating among the lower ranks.
"Hey, have you heard? News Pigeons brought more phones today!" a Marine soldier whispered, his eyes full of anticipation.
"Shh, keep it down! If the officers find out, we'll be in trouble," another soldier quickly covered his mouth, looking around warily.
"Don't worry, as long as we don't say anything, the officers won't know."
"Yeah, these phones are much more interesting than newspapers, especially that TikTok, it's simply amazing!"
"Right, I almost couldn't sleep last night, I kept scrolling through videos, those beautiful women are just too pretty!"
"Shh, stop talking, someone's coming!"
The two soldiers immediately fell silent, pretending to look elsewhere nonchalantly.
At the same time, the newsstand clerks were also incredibly busy.
They maintained order while quickly handing phones to customers, not forgetting to promote newspapers: "Newspaper + phone, two hundred Belli, grand opening special!"
"Give me a phone!"
"Hurry, I want two!"
"Don't rush, one by one!"
The clerks were in a flurry, but deep down, they were laughing like crazy.
They knew that as long as these phones remained popular, their commissions would flow in continuously.
"Hey, brother, phones arrived again today, hurry and get in line!" a soldier patted his companion's shoulder, his eyes full of excitement.
"I know, I've been waiting here already. I heard the News Pigeons brought even more phones this time!"
"I hope I can buy one this time, I don't want to wait anymore."
The two spoke as they joined the long queue.
However, not far behind them, Vice Admiral Onigumo was coldly observing everything.
Frowning, he muttered to himself, "What are these soldiers doing? Phones? TikTok? What magic do these things possess to make these guys so obsessed?"
He shook his head and turned to leave, preparing to go back and deal with these slacking fellows!
...
In Loguetown, in a smoke-filled office, Smoker and Tashigi sat in chairs.
Ever since Straw Hat escaped from him last time, Smoker had not been happy.
If that man hadn't suddenly appeared, how could he have failed?
"Mr. Smoker, letting Straw Hat escape wasn't your fault, you don't need to blame yourself," Tashigi tried to comfort him.
"Hmph! I don't need your comfort," Smoker remained stubborn.
However, at this moment, he wasn't concerned about Straw Hat passing through Loguetown to the Grand Line; his mind was entirely focused on the relationship between Straw Hat and that man.
How did he appear here?
This was something he still couldn't figure out.
Just as he was deep in thought, the cigar in his hand reached its end.
He lit a new cigar, but his peripheral vision unexpectedly caught Tashigi fiddling with something in her hand.
It was rectangular, with a metallic sheen, and fit perfectly in her hand; every now and then, Tashigi would cover her mouth, trying hard to suppress her laughter.
"What are you doing?" Smoker suddenly asked.
"Ah?!" The sudden question startled Tashigi.
After realizing what happened, seeing Smoker's eyes fixed intently on her, her face immediately turned red, "No... nothing."
"I already saw it, what is that thing in your hand? How can you be so engrossed in playing with it?" Smoker asked with a frown.
"Hmm? You mean this?" Tashigi pointed to her phone, her expression full of confusion.
"Exactly," Smoker's tone carried a hint of impatience.
"This is a phone, it's very popular lately. I saw a lot of people buying them, so I bought one to try, and I found it's really fun!" Tashigi explained.
As she spoke, she took out her phone, found the camera function, and snapped a picture of Smoker, "Senior, look, this is what I just took."
Tashigi flipped the phone over, and before Smoker could frown and react, she showed him the photo.
Smoker was a bit impatient, but his gaze still casually swept over it.
This glance was significant; his eyes immediately couldn't move away, "You just took this? How is it so clear! It's many times better than what the Den Den Mushi takes."
Tashigi grinned and used two fingers to zoom in on the photo, continuing, "And that's not all. Not only can you take pictures anytime, anywhere, but the photos are clear and you can also zoom in, like this."
Smoker looked at the magnified image of himself on the phone; even the scar on his face was clearly visible, and he was greatly shocked.
If he weren't in front of his subordinate, he might have even popped his eyeballs out.
"It's just taking a picture, why were you laughing nonstop just now?" Smoker forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and skillfully changed the subject.
"Hahaha, Mr. Smoker, these videos on it are too funny."
"Videos? What is that now?" Smoker suspected he might be out of touch with the times; why did he not understand anything Tashigi was saying?
And Tashigi also realized that Mr. Smoker really didn't seem to know what a phone was.
"Mr. Smoker, let me explain it to you. This thing is called a phone; it was brought by News Pigeons a few days ago and suddenly became popular."
She first briefly explained the function of the phone, then began to introduce its entertainment features: "The video-scrolling app on it is called TikTok APP, and it's full of fun videos."
Tashigi scrolled up and down through the videos, slowly explaining, "And after you register your own TikTok account, you can also upload videos."
As she spoke, Tashigi scrolled to a video of a Marine Base: "Oh? Which Marine Base cafeteria is this? It looks nicely decorated."
Smoker also became interested, but these Marines were too bold; they even filmed the Marine Base.
"These kids are simply lawless."
Tashigi, however, pouted, somewhat dismissively, "It's not bad, they didn't film anything confidential, just sharing some daily life."
Smoker snorted coldly.
Immediately after, a figure appeared on the video screen that was familiar to his very core: long pink hair, a white Marine cape, a beautiful face, a focal point wherever she went!
It was Tina!