"Then I think I have more of a chance.  Might be a long and hard road, but...I can see it, at the very least.  And that's the first step to doing."

At last the reach the gate, it blends into the surrounding wall until it's opened from the inside to reveal a stone lined tunnel that goes for maybe 15 meter before emerging again into the sunlight.

Allison turns to her before going through.

"I find I don't know what to say. I've had this conversation many times before but you're correct that you do have a special advantage." She takes a deep breath. "What I will say is that it may do you well to ask for help. And also, welcome to Breyersville."

"I agree, I don't plan on doing this alone.

"And...thank you.  I think, despite the bit where I'm trapped in a real live deathgame, that I'm honestly glad to be here.  I imagine you're still on watch duty, but I'd consider it a favor if you'd point me somewhere quiet-ish so I could work on repairing my armor?  Also to your library, or - "

Say, does her datapad have signal?

"Hmm, quiet is in somewhat short supply. We try to use space efficiently and that means there isn't much empty space. I can show you to the library but they won't want you working on your armor there. If you just want quiet-ish there's the public workshops there are usually people talking there but typically quietly they respect the shared space."

No her tablet isn't connecting to anything.

"A public workshop will do.  And I will definitely want to visit the library, too.  Preserving knowledge is very important."

"Indeed it is, the nearest workshop is this way." She walks to Student's side, gesturing whenever there's a turn. "You know I don't think I caught your name." The buildings they pass are somewhat eclectic, some of them are built from local materials like the tunnel, the guard towers and the wall, while others seem slightly worn but neatly painted and made from bricks, concrete, synesthetic materials and other bits. There are guardtowers interspersed with the other buildings and sometimes built on top of them and a occasionally fused stone structures with large gems at the top that come up to about waist height.

"Tian'kenata, Thoughtful Student in my native language.  And yours is?"

She's fascinated by the variety of architecture on display, especially the gem-topped pedestals.  "I recognize a lot of these materials and styles, but what's with these?"

"I'm Allison Cray. The pedestals are early warning systems, they alert us to attacks from below the ground or high altitudes. It's not perfect but it's usually enough that we can have people in place to mitigate any damage. Haven't lost anyone to ants in over two years now so they're working."

"Interesting.  I assume that there's countermeasures imposed regarding seismographs, echonography (or whatever it's called), radar, magnetometry, et cetera, by the System?  Or...oh, aerial attacks would have the problem that yes, that is a danger but also a bird, hmm...but I have some thoughts about improving those defenses, and unspent points..."

"The issue with seismographs is that people live here. It's hard to distinguish the signs of the ants tunneling from the sounds of people living their lives. As for the rest it tends to require a lot of electronics and that's in relatively short supply. We shoot down any birds flying over the village if we can. Preferably before they get past the wall but if they're flying fast enough or high enough that it's not possible. Wild animals are basically all the system's creatures now. There are some pets that haven't been transformed but over time more and more have either become anthromorphs or monsters. I'm certainly willing to listen but I would like to note that you're coming across as a bit arrogant. You just heard that our defenses exist not even any details. And we've invested hundreds of points into these detectors and the skills used to craft them."

"Unfortunately, I got the 'assuming people know nothing' genes from my mother - and as much as it is absurdly frustrating when she does it to me, I seem to have picked up the habit.  Wish I hadn't, but unfortunately here we are.  ...Say, has anyone tried investing in supernal taming?

"...Footfalls and burrowing don't sound alike, but yes, if the sensors are on the surface, that's too noisy.  Even with really good algorithms.  And - wait, how much actual digging are or aren't you doing, anyway?"

"I'll do my best to take it in the spirit which it is intended. As for taming animals some people do it. There are ways to do it safely even. The unsafe ways tend to have the animal reverting to hostility whenever it gets more points and becoming harder to tame again."

She pauses for a moment, "We don't do much serious digging, for obvious reasons digging projects have to be approved well in advance. But we do farm food and that involves some digging. We do occasionally launch efforts to wipe out the ants but after the first time that went badly we start those from outside the walls."

"...I wonder if you could do a three-dimensional moat..."

"Maybe even go full arcology."

"Or...oh, that would get the System deciding to ruin our day, wouldn't it, if you just took off.  And I'd bet it's tied its abilities, to being within its service area, or vice-versa."

"Oh it's much worse than that. The system has been kind enough to supply space monsters that attack any spacecraft with people on them. A few brave people managed to get to the moon only to find that it now has it's own ecology of monsters waiting for whoever visits. People generally stopped trying after they learned that."

"That was about what I was expecting, honestly.  But I wonder if you could go all floating island about it?"

"If there's a way to make it work I haven't heard of anyone doing it. Monsters tend to attack conventional aircraft engines and those aren't really enough to enable floating islands anyway. Levitating an island for long periods of time with magic would take a lot of points and mana to setup. And once you did who knows what the system would throw at you."

"I read a book that used interlocking vacuum-sealing force shields to make something like a blimp."

"That might be more mana efficient, I don't really know. I'm not a spellcrafter, I just use spells other people have designed. If it did you'd need to be sure it can't fail in a way that results in you dropping to the ground and again, deal with whatever the system throws at you. It seems to take ambition as a challenge. Also... we harvest things from the forest. It's where we get a substantial portion of our food and fuel despite the danger. Having a floating island would make that... complicated."

"Yeah, that's a thing the protagonist worked out.

"...wonder if you could make a tractor beam.  But that's probably not really worth the time..."

"Anyway, the thought I'm having is that you could go full mobile arcology, and take some of the ground with you when you leave, but tried-and-true here is a lot less volatile, and experimenting more volatile than it should be."

"It is a bitter irony that the system which claims to offer endless adventure significantly incentivizes extreme caution and not rocking the boat."

Yeah, uh, System, why is this like this?  It seems like it does not maximize adventuring?

The system exists to bring endless adventure and excitement to every corner of reality

But you're not actually encouraging people to do so.

The system doesn't respond to the implied question.

Given that you exist 'to bring endless adventure and excitement to every corner of reality', why do you incentivize turtling and the pattern of behavior I will gloss as "not inflicting you on other people because people think what you do sucks"?