There are some actual elements of LCom being a teacher to Ryan. Video game training, but also very much more general training done through video games. In the end Ryan has fun with it so it all works out. I think there was a line in a much earlier comic (if I'm recalling correctly) where Ryan calls LCom sensei. He made the choice to do that himself. But now we're getting a hint of what that was.

Man, I'm bad at leaving clues for people to build their own world from. Whoops.