***
{Outside The Projection}
The projection flickered. It froze.
And then, as was usual, the voices erupted:
"I... God, that was—"
"Impossible."
"No, no, no—did you see?!"
"That number in the bottom of the projection?!"
"A dekil—A decillion! How many zeroes even is that?"
"When the Hell did we have words for numbers past a trillion?"
"Who even counts that far?!"
"I don't think it was him... The Sultan himself didn't know; the Ten Commandment was the one doing the counting. That was why it kept contradicting itself."
"More importantly—he crawled? For that long? Just—crawled? HOW?"
"Forget the crawling! Did you hear the whispers?"
"The Sultan heard them all! Every last one! And they didn't break him!"
"How long did you last?"
A voice suddenly cut through the commotion.
Silence fell, and for a moment, no one wanted to answer.
"Ehh..."
One man scratched his head, avoiding eye contact.
