Struggling to Survive in Hell Difficulty

Chapter 155.

Though exploding the ball of Plague (and also compressed oxygen) a bit too close to me was not something that should be done (and only something a mad man would think of, admittedly), it was already too late for me to stop things already in motion.

Fortunately, I did not receive any HP damage from the explosion, even though I had gotten flung towards the nearest building.

"...oh, great, my MP is still up there."

When I was gathering the ball of air, I was depending on the weird Buff from earlier as this was technically not a proper Spell. Prior to shooting the [Fireball] I noticed that my MP had only gone down by a quarter of the full amount, so I was not expecting the quadruple MP cost from [Fireball] and the explosion to take a third of my MP in total.

I took a deep breath of air to see if the Plague was still here... but fortunately there was no system notification that popped up.

{...you really are someone who lived a reckless life}

...aside from TIZ who, quite obviously, pretty miffed with what just happened. I was unsure whether she was unhappy with the method I used just now or the resulting explosion in the end, but I knew asking about it would just be me signing a death sentence needlessly.

[You have dealt with the situation with an unexpected method]

[The system will now calculate the appropriate reward...]

I thought it was TIZ's thorny window, but it turned out to be a system window.

Seeing what was written, this seemed to be a positive action, if not a great one...

"...it ended up becoming a ghost Town."

All of a sudden, I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me. When I turned around immediately, I did not find anyone or even the silhouette draped in black cloak from before.

"...are you hearing this, TIZ?"

I muttered weakly, but there was no response coming from her. It did not take me long to notice that TIZ's thorny window could not be found anywhere near me as well.

It seemed like I was separated from her again, perhaps because this was yet another system event.

"The poisonous Plague that ended up killing hundreds or even thousands of people." The ownerless yet familiar voice continued to speak, not caring about my internal thoughts. "Nobody was left alive. Neither the young nor the elderly were spared, both the healthy and the sick... all of them dead helplessly within less than an hour. The Plague took everyone, cruelly yet equally fair."

There was no change in my surroundings. Even after the explosion that I had caused just now, not a single building was destroyed by the force and not a single tree got toppled as well.

It was as if the scenery right now was nothing but a mere background prop, immutable and indestructible.

"Though, it did not matter to me. I had only stayed here for a few months for a site study, leaving after I had a significant progress with my task. Although this place had kind people who had a great sense of camaraderie and lived by helping each other, it was not a place that had an emotional connection with me."

"......"

"...yes... this is an irrelevant place. It had no emotional connection with me... so why am I crying right now?"

[You have been affected by [Sorrow of the Heartless]]

[Damage against certain creatures increased by 500%]