Aiyoku Works!:

Okay, I figured out the problem.  My Windows Defender antivirus program decided arbitrarily that this was a malicious software so stopped it from loading and even went so far as to quarantine the executable file all on its own initiative.  Of course the file is not a virus or whatever, it's a perfectly innocent visual novel that many people have played without any problem before me.  So all I had to do was deactivate my malicious antivirus software and suddenly one of the best visual novels of all time was ready for play.

Then all I had to do was hold down the control button to fast forward to where the previous patched version of the game had stopped at, and discover that F1 summons up the menu that lets me save, and I was ready to play the actual new content of the game that I'd been waiting for.  Hopefully the remaining routes live up to the headache involved in getting to this point.

Now that I have Aiyoku suddenly 2023 matters again.  This year still has important experiences to eternalize.  I could even discover new characters worthy of my fictional character hall of fame.