Challenge: Is there a small NFA for { a^i : i\ne 1000} ?

Consider the language {L =  aⁱ   : i ≠ 1000 } There is a DFA for L of size 1002 and one can prove that there is no smaller DFA. What about an NFA?  Either: a) Show that any NFA for L requires roughly 1000 states or b) Show that there is a small NFA for L, say less than 500 states or c) State that you think the question is unknown to science. I will reveal the answer in my next post, though its possible that (c) is the answer and the comments will convert it to either (a) or (b). Feel free to leave comments with your answers. if you want to work on it without other information then do not read the comments.