Why would you count? There is a point of deminishing returns when another can just doesn't matter.

Actually, thinking about this further, 998 beers might have been plenty (and that number may not have been a result of someone's obsessive compulsive disorder)... Because I would assume that the police didn't bust in at minute one of this party, that there were 998 full beers; not empties, and that the drinking/drunk people had consumed the fraternity's alcohol and had not brought their own.

Therefore, 998 cans is just what they had left over after everyone was almost done drinking :p