Anti-virus isn't really needed, but if you're gonna run one pirate a copy of Emisisoft because everything else is a joke imo. As far as VPNs go, there is no good free option. Maybe a free tier for ProtonVPN exists but I'm sure it has massive limits to make it viable. Mullvad is the best one you actually pay for, but you can get a hacked NordVPN account for like $5 for 3 years so that's cheaper