Feng Liu was a bright boy from Sichuan province.

On a bright day, when the sun shone on a remote village in Sichuan, a veritable star was born in the local hospital. His parents were certainly not wealthy, but they could afford to give their newborn and only son the basic amenities that would make people here content with their lives. This was the China of the early 1990s, when the economy was rapidly expanding and everyone was looking forward to the future.

As Feng was growing up, he soon became a prodigy: he started reading at 5 months old, and speaking much earlier. At the age of 3 he started his long track of erudite learning, becoming a polyglot at age 7. His knowledge of English dazzled the entire village, and the government officials soon noticed. Feng was taken to Beijing, where his talents could be better nurtured. Feng exceeded expectations even there, and he soon became a true polymath. His wide expertise helped him in his new study of Quantum Mechanics, where he finally discovered a way of changing the atomic structure of molecules. He could create gold out of dirt.

When the Government found out, they thought they won the lottery. Here is an invention that will propel their country to world domination. They kept this a state secret until they could build a deadly force to defeat their enemies.

But during this process, spies managed to gather knowledge of this new development and leak it to Washington. Panic set in there immediately: but they must move discreetly, since if the Chinese found out the Americans had found out their secret plan, they would immediately strike with all the great progress they already made! America needs patience.

But they couldn't let things slide: America needed to move a lot of stuff to the Eastern theater near Peking, as much as they could without provoking their adversary.

The Americans found it necessary to do a coup d'etat on themselves, as their future moves would really fit the pattern of a military occupational government more than that of a civilian one. So on a cloudy day, the military converged on Washington, declared the government insolvent, and took a militaristic tone. But behind the confident posture, panic was king. Officials debated the correct path forward, how much they could provoke the bear without being annihilated.

But in the midst of this conundrum, someone leaked the real reason behind the coup to Beijing. China recognized the moment to act is now: and even a year was plenty to yield real results. Compared to China's army, the rest of the world's looked like something from the stone age.

China then went on the offensive: a quantum radar darkened Taipei, no electricity and all motor vehicles were out. Even the guns weren't firing. The world was horrified, and a Chinese task force was escorted from a landing beach where they were supposed to brutally fight, and taken to Taipei to receive the surrender of the "separatist" government. This scene shocked the entire world, and riots broke out immediately after China's unveiling. Riots gripped the streets of Washington, as fear struck the mind of all.

But out of this chaos rose three hundred suns in China. Major world leaders had already converged on New York, in order to decide on the appropriate response to the most recent developments. All the great powers agreed that the best recourse is to drop as many nuclear and hydrogen bombs on China as possible, and hope for the best.

All the planes in the world had one great target, and Armageddon had arrived. China could not sit idly, they too had nuclear weapons. But the quantum discoveries hadn't helped them much here, relatively speaking. So their nuclear capabilities were roughly on par with those of the rest of the world combined. The issue was that China was much smaller in size than the rest of the world.

China responded in kind: bombs were dropped on Washington and Moscow. The international war had both sides dropping everything they had, as China was simultaneously trying to expand its borders. But progress was tough due to all the radiation. After the dropping of a thousand bombs, all major governments collapsed. Civilization was returning to the stone age.

Somewhere in a bunker in Hunan, a scientist has wept for hours. He can't seem to forgive himself, seeing himself responsible for the death of billions. Somewhere in the distance, a bright light shines through the narrow vertical windows. The man never stops crying, but it is all over.