[LIJI]

3⁹⁹ or 99³, doesn't matter, you'll always end up with the same result: 297.

x^y isn't x times y, it's x to the power of y.

5² = 5 * 5 = 25
2⁵ = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 32


3 * 99 = 297
99 * 3 = 297
3⁹⁹ = ~ 17 with 46 zeros following
99³ = 970299

And anyway, the correct number of endings would be 3⁹⁹. That's slightly less than the number of atoms in planet earth.