“Just one more flag. This is it, man, I’ve got this.”
The soldier muttered to himself.
He crouched in the blocky shrubs just outside the clearing, staring at the flag post, not moving, crosshairs locked.
“Go go go!”
He jumped up, sprinting across the field. So very close.
That’s when the screen froze, and red letters flashed on the screen.
Connection Problem.
The man at the computer screamed in agony, slamming his mouse down, slumping to the floor. All over. He’d lost. He was lost…

They found him in the alley outside the internet cafe later that night, curled up in a ball, muttering to himself.
“I won… the war, I won it. Battlefield … Vietnam… it was mine. My ping, the connection…”
Another casualty.