Episode 2
The story
This population does not have one battlefield. Snow, a flooded city, dense jungle: the ground keeps changing. What never changes is who owns it by the end of the night.
Every population has a natural predator. Tonight the squad meets theirs, a player the family will come to call Sluggie, and it understands at once why others were afraid. Most predators are content with one kill. This one takes three.
Faced with an enemy it cannot out-shoot, the squad does what failed strategists always try: it proposes a bounty. It doesn't help. Soon the mere mention of his name changes behaviour. Then he takes the high ground and removes the entire hunting party in a single pass.
Nobody logs off. They will be back next week, for the same reason they always come back. Sluggie remains, for now, undefeated. The squad insists that is temporary. History, so far, disagrees.
