Chapter 9: Modified Den Den Mushi, A Mobile Phone?
The next morning...
Sabaody Archipelago, World Economy News Agency Headquarters.
After finishing breakfast, the group gathered in Brook's room, where various Den Den Mushi were scattered across the floor. Antonio busily fed them leaves, carefully tending to the little snails and even chatting with them like old friends.
The receivers and keypads attached to Den Den Mushi were artificial modifications, so even if these parts were damaged, the snails wouldn't feel any pain.
With the right components, they could even send faxes. If connected to a loudspeaker, they could function as broadcast Den Den Mushi. Truly, the world was full of wonders.
"Antonio, try talking to the Den Den Mushi and see if they can acquire multiple functions at once—like combining the abilities of an image Den Den Mushi, a fax Den Den Mushi, and a projection Den Den Mushi."
As someone from the modern era, Brook suddenly found himself missing smartphones. He wondered if these biologically engineered creatures could be enhanced to support instant messaging or image sharing, beyond just voice communication.
"Captain, the little snails say they've only ever known the functions they currently have and will obey any modifications their owners make."
"Antonio, see if these young Den Den Mushi can learn and be modified to support multiple functions simultaneously."
"Captain, Den Den Mushi are quite lazy. They're only willing to learn one frequency at a time. Handling multiple functions would be exhausting for them. They already get so little energy from eating leaves, so they have to sleep often."
So that's how it is... These creatures spend most of their time either eating or sleeping, except for the brief moments they're used for communication. If they had to stay alert for instant messaging, they'd probably die from exhaustion.