This is such as fascinating story, @amirtheawesome1. It seems you have a "Horror of Baghdad" series going, so now I wonder if the mystery of the... um, "self-esteem" problem will be solved. (I had not heard that particular term before for that that particular phenomenon!)
This is truly inspired:
Brothels have been completely abandoned. The prices of heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs have gone up by four hundred percent. I bought a paper cone filled with pistachio, hazelnut, dry cucumber slices, and apple seeds for two hundred dollars. And I paid seventy fucking dollars for a feather. People have resorted to illusions, to something to numb them, to witchcraft.
Haha, I was just trying to match the lengths people would go to in order to avoid saying it. And yes, as a plotter I have the whole thing lined up. Including a proper introduction for the corpse collector in the first one I posted, plus the now twice mentioned agent Kamal. The issue I have with it is that it completely goes against rule number five, and even if it wasn't I wouldn't want to trigger a PTSD for a reader. So I am pursuing either doing it in a tasteful way or pursue a different route altogether, the latter is the probable outcome.
I never wrote a long term story, and I actually find the rule regarding serialized story to be useful as it keeps me focused on each story individually. The parts where things connect is merely a reward to those who read them.
I am REALLY happy you like that paragraph, I wanted to explore the effects of such phenomenon socioeconomically. So it means a lot that it left an impression.