Biru was cruel for that blackmail.
"But if it’s business we’re talking about, you can discuss it with us," the Dwarf said.
His attendants were used to arranging official royal business for their king anyway.
"Alright," Michael said before taking out the phone from his pockets. "I’m planning on mass manufacturing this item. But it needs a lot of Mithril..."
He gave them a brief demonstration for the phone, and they reacted just the same as Castelle.
"Amazing! I can hear your voice through this thing!"
"I can see your face! It’s as if you’re here in my hands!"
He each gave the Dwarves a phone and let them communicate with each other from the far ends of the castle.
It wasn’t long before twenty different Dwarves swarmed the phone and began studying its craft.
With their natural affinity to smithing, they appreciated the complexity and the advanced technology needed to construct the phone. Some of them couldn’t help but shake their heads in disappointment, as they knew that they could have never come up with such a product even if they had another lifetime.
"Boss Michael... how did you build this?!"
"How are the phones connected?! This is impossible!"
As much as he would like to impress the Dwarves, he couldn’t tell them about the ’Internet Cube’.
"That’s a trade secret," he winked.
They understood his reasons as fellow blacksmiths, but they still felt extremely frustrated after not being able to figure out how the phone worked. They began arguing with each other about their guesses on the phone’s inner mechanisms.
"It must be magic!"
"No, I cannot sense anything from it."
"Then how else can you explain its limitless energy?!"
In the end, the inevitable request came in. The Dwarves realized that they wouldn’t get anywhere with their analysis if they didn’t take the phone apart with their own hands.
"Lord Michael, would it be so kind of you to produce these phones for us?" the royal Dwarf attendant pleaded.
Michael inhaled sharply. "Sure. It’ll be 10,000 Sand Dollars each but I can only do a limited amount for now. I’m still backed up with another order that I haven’t done yet."
"Then we shall order 20 phones!" said the Dwarves simultaneously.
Michael was pleasantly surprised with their reasonable order. Knowing their intense curiosity with complex technology, he thought that they would order a ridiculous amount.
But it made sense. Most Dwarves never left their kingdom, so there was no need for them to have a long-distance communication device. If they wanted to talk to somebody, they could always use the train that ran around their kingdom and travel extremely fast.
"Okay, it’ll take a few days before I can deliver it, is that okay?"
The Dwarves gave him a thumbs up, before turning their focus on the phones again.
"Boss Michael, can the...’apps’... on this be changed?"
One smart Dwarf was able to figure out the customizability of the phone after tinkering with its settings for a little bit.
In particular, he saw the settings in the options that said,
{Turn on automatic app downloads in the future?}
This implied the possibility where there would be other apps installed in the future.
"You’ve guessed it," he said to the Dwarf. "These three apps are just going to be the default ones. In the future, I’m planning for it to be so much more. Each user will be able to select which one they want and what they don’t want."
His words seemed to send a ’confusion spell’ within the Dwarves.
"Boss... does that mean that we have to return the phone to you so that you can get these apps added?" one of them asked, expressing everyone’s question.
"No. It’s going to be installed automatically in their sleep or while they’re using it. It doesn’t need to be returned."
This confused the Dwarves even more. They just couldn’t understand the idea that something could be changed after it was already made.
It was like saying that a sword could suddenly turn into a hammer without a blacksmith’s intervention.
"Here, I’ll show it to you," he said, taking one of the phones from the Dwarves.
ChatJK5, can you make a simple app where...
After giving that prompt, ChatJK5 gave him a new completed app in a matter of a few seconds.
[Do you want to upload this app to the cube? All phones made will have this app automatically downloaded.]
Yes.
A prismatic magic circle appeared beneath his feet as he used his Unity Clone as a means to communicate with the Internet Cube.
Upon its completion, an invisible shockwave of mana emanated from his body and reached through the different dimensions, eventually making contact with the cube in his Drone’s Pocket Dimension.
And as the signal bounced back, the phones on the Dwarves’ hands suddenly vibrated, startling them and making them almost drop it to the floor.
"Woah!"
"Crikey! What was that?!"
"Look, there’s a new icon on the screen!" one of the Dwarves said, pointing to the fourth app on the phone.
Beside the ’Call’ app, there was a new image of a man’s silhouette riding a strange two-wheeled vehicle that had a box on its rear end.
Some Dwarves were able to recognize this as a motorcycle, making them guess that this app had something to do with automobiles.
However, the title on the bottom of the icon looked completely out of place. It said,
{Reborn Eats}
"Boss Michael, what is this?"
"Open the app," he instructed them. "Do you see the two options on it?"
After the Dwarves touched the {Reborn Eats} app, the whole screen changed to show another two icons in the center.
One had an image of an aluminum soda can titled {RD Soda}
And the other image was something intimately familiar to the Dwarves. It was a glass mug filled to the brim with {Beer}, its white froth slowly spilling around the rim. They didn’t even have to read the title to know what it was about.
The Dwarves touched the {Beer} icon, and the phone suddenly showed a new window.
{Beer Delivery}
{How many would you like:}
{Where to deliver?}
Their eyes widened. And without a moment’s hesitation, tens of Dwarven hands suddenly touched the phone screen and began ordering beer like crazy.
"You mean to tell me I can order beer with this phone?!"
"I don’t have to get out of my house to go to the tavern?!"
"I need this. I need this right now!"
Then, the royal Dwarf attendant approached Michael.
"Lord Michael, I know that you cannot make that many phones right now, but would it be possible for us to change our order?
We would like only a hundred phones for now."
Michael was speechless, jaws opening up and down. And before he could even utter a single word, the Dwarf attendant clapped his hands, urging two Dwarves to come into the room carrying a large wooden box with them.
The chest plopped down into the ground with a heavy thud.
Then, the Dwarf unclasped its locks and revealed a mountain of Sand Dollars for Michael to claim.
"This will be our payment, Lord Michael! Pleasure doing business with you!"
"Woohoo! Beer beer beer!" the Dwarves celebrated.