There's a roulette wheel that starts spinning in Murphy's head whenever someone shows him sympathy, set to shades of Yes, I deserve all the sympathy black and The world is hard and unkind so deal with it red. It's so infrequent that he receives that pity that usually the seconds of that wheel spinning are obvious.

"Whatever. Don't worry about it. I was tied down for experimentation when I was mauled, which humans did to me. The virus existed because humans wanted new ways to fight each other. And from what I see, it seems to be in the capacity of most species to be cruel and unreasonable, under the influence or not. But because of my special... I don't know 'powers' I guess, I have a connection to everyone who died of the virus and a very 'open mind'. I guess that's why the Forever One gave me the flower or whatever."

And maybe because Murphy's always been an asshole, but the trauma he's gone through and the connections it forced his mind to form created a spiderweb of decency in him. Not a heart of gold more like a lace trim of it. He'd legitimately felt sorry for the being.