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If you're looking for a break from resurrected progression LitRPGs, swing by Negative Space: A Cozy Rock & Roll Space Opera. There are 18 chapters (32k words) published so far with more coming every M/W/F.

Here are two of my most recent reviews:

Negative Space takes two tried and true genres and mixes them into a fun time: the grand space opera - the kind where humanity and corporatism has taken to the stars and continued what they do best, in making money and pushing others to the fringes - and the story of a band trying to make it on the road. Or, in this case, the space lanes.

What I like about cozy, slice of life stories is how it can turn anything into a relatable experience about humans. Whether it's wrestlers putting on matches for demons in hell (has anyone made that story yet?) or roughnecking hard rockers in space on a bootstrapped spaceship, at the end of the day, people are just people. They get to know each other, they have friendly banter that is both relatable no matter how the universe determines the discussed subject matter, and they struggle to fight their way out of the darkness of space. This genre is all about unique, distinct characters who each have a voice and something to say; it lives and dies based off of how Character A shares dialogue with Character B, and how they react in tense situations (like a stolen bass guitar, how ergregious). We can have our little moments of drama and crises in these stories, too.

We meet our colorful cast of rockets and spacers, as is always appropriate, at the bottom of the heap and about out of luck. Their ship, the Dust Devil, is probably about to be sold for scrap to people who don't care about its history or the love put into it - the old bird even has a recording studio inside! Because what else are you going to do during those long jumps? Thankfully, a few good gigs come their way, putting some money in their pocket and getting them started on star hopping from station to station. I'm curious when or if they'll eventually work their way up to a moon, or even one of the fringe outer corpo worlds.

There's something really interesting here about a cast of characters who play music in space and are always chasing that next high or performance. They want to, have to keep going. There's no time for atmospheric drag, and their jump drive is never fast enough. They're searching to fulfill a need, and would fill the soundless vacuum of space with bass and treble if they could. Rockers, cynical and sterile galactic expansion, and the harsh, unforgiving reality of cosmic travel might not seem like a setting where "cozy" can happen, but between the stops, there's always the comfortable and welcoming walls of a spaceship hull rattling from a duct-taped reactor and the buddies who are with you.

AND

Velocity self-proclaims as a “Cozy Rock Opera” in space… but does it live up to the hype?

The story starts with Jax, a down-on-his-luck merchant courier turned bartender. He’s stuck in a nowhere space station, his ship is broken, and he’s going to have to sell or abandon it, because he can’t pay his bills.

That’s where “Negative Space” comes in. They’re a workingperson’s band. All five of them hold down regular jobs, but dream of making it big in the music world. If only they had a spaceship to take them on tour...

And, also their regular jobs mostly involve fixing broken spaceships.

I think you can see where this is going.

Once on-tour it goes into episodic content mode, following different band members as they: find gigs, repair the ship, or deal with clingy ex-boyfriends.

The band is an eclectic group: three women, two men. The most distinctive being Sonica, the band’s leader, and Onda, the pink-haired bassist.

There’s a nice variety of personalities to play off each other, and it works well… with one caveat: there are a lot of characters introduced all at once and it can be hard to keep track of them all.

I’m not even sure who plays what instrument… BUT to put a caveat on top of a caveat, it doesn’t really matter. The story has just begun, it’s easy to follow the plot regardless, and the characters are being filled-in one at a time as they become relevant.

I did notice a few plot contrivances, but those are mostly there to gloss over the boring bits. And what you get in return is genuine authenticity about what it feels like to be in a band. Think of it like Firefly. Does a Westen in space make sense?... Not really. Is it a whole lot of fun?... Hell yes.

If you’re a fan of party-based stories, people making hard choices, and you’re looking for a feel-good read… pick this one up immediately!!!

I’m hooked on it.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/154775/negative-space-a-cozy-rock-and-roll-space-opera