A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1452 - 984: Found You At Last!

Chapter 1452: Chapter 984: Found You At Last!

Under the lead of the Four-clawed Beast, dozens of men and women walked silently forward, while Duanmu Huai and Mary followed them quietly without making a sound. The crowd soon left the small town, and just ahead lay...

"That’s the school, isn’t it?"

Duanmu Huai looked at the familiar layout not far away and murmured, while Mary also nodded.

"Indeed, it seems to be..."

"Bang!"

However, before Mary could finish her words, a sudden gunshot rang out. In the next moment... everything flashed before their eyes, and by the time they came to their senses, they were already standing on a twilight-colored street.

"...Alright, now we can be sure."

Duanmu Huai silently spread his hands.

"This time retrospection isn’t our doing."

"That gunshot earlier—someone must have been shot, right? Which means the person shot must be the one triggering the time retrospection?"

"Exactly, and now we know where to find them!"

Duanmu Huai sneered coldly.

"Right now, we head to the school—let’s lie in wait like hunters!"

...To Nedai Shinpei, everything he was experiencing at the moment was beyond imagination.

Just a few days ago, while studying in Tokyo, Nedai Shinpei received devastating news: his childhood friend Kobune Shio had tragically passed away. To attend her funeral, Nedai Shinpei returned alone from Tokyo to Hidari Island. However, what followed completely shattered Shinpei’s understanding of reality.

First, he learned that his childhood friend’s death might not have been an accident but rather a murder. Kobune Shio’s younger sister, Kobune Mio, told Shinpei that three days before her sister’s death, they had seen "another sister" together!

There was also an eerie legend on the island—a tale of "Shadow Disease." Those afflicted by this condition would see their shadow—another version of themselves. Then, the Shadow would kill its original, and subsequently replace them...

Initially, Shinpei dismissed this as mere superstition, yet in his quest to uncover the truth, he decided to investigate the phenomenon of Shadow Disease with Kobune Mio. However, during their journey to the Shrine, they were suddenly attacked. It was there that Shinpei witnessed an unbelievable scene—another Kobune Mio holding her counterpart at gunpoint and, right before Shinpei’s eyes, killing her.

Immediately after, the Doppelgänger killed Shinpei himself—ending everything right there... or so it should have.

But reality proved otherwise. The moment Shinpei was killed, he found himself back at the exact time he had first arrived on the island!

Shinpei had no idea what had transpired, but he was desperate to decipher it and escape his predicament. Finally, through relentless effort, he managed to drag the situation to the day of the festival—but during the festival, something even more unimaginable occurred.

While participating in the festivities, Shinpei accidentally spotted someone.

It was his childhood friend Kobune Shio—the very person whose funeral he had attended three days prior!

Initially, Shinpei thought this Kobune Shio must be a Shadow who had murdered the original. But to his surprise, the person had no memory of such acts and firmly believed she was Kobune Shio herself—not a Shadow. Before Shinpei had time to unravel the mystery, disaster struck.

Shadow-possessed individuals carried out a ruthless massacre, killing everyone at the festival and offering them as sacrifices. Despite Shinpei’s frantic struggle, he was powerless to stop the carnage, witnessing the brutal deaths of his friend, his friend’s younger sister, and his childhood companion Kobune Shio—all before his eyes. At that moment, Shinpei was incapable of doing anything but await the bleak end in utter despair.

However, just then, Shinpei noticed a colossal figure appearing suddenly. In the next instant, with the thunderous boom of gunshots, his head exploded. What happened afterward? Time once again rewound, and Shinpei found himself returned to the moment he had first arrived on the island.

From then on, Shinpei used the knowledge gained through repeated time retrospections to conduct investigations and confront dangers head-on. Throughout his endeavors, Shinpei also acquired formidable allies.

Minami Ryuunosuke, a novelist writing under the pseudonym Minami Rizhu—she came to the island seemingly with the sole purpose of eliminating the Shadows.

Her partner, Orion Nezu Ginjiro, a local hunter with exceptional marksmanship.

Shinpei’s childhood companions and friends, Diamond Window and his sister, Diamond Azuru.

With every cycle of retrospection, Shinpei began piecing together the truth behind everything.

Long ago, an extraterrestrial entity crashed into this planet, sinking deep into the ocean. This being existed in higher dimensions and possessed a mysterious ability to scan and replicate other organisms. While in the ocean’s depths, it scanned a whale and transformed itself into one—then came ashore on Hidari Island.

When the whale stranded on Hidari Island, it naturally drew the attention of the island’s residents. As a curious girl approached the stranded creature, the alien scanned her as well—transforming into her and devouring her in the process.