Disconnected as soon as I leave town to join an instance

I get dc'ed upon loading into a new instance. Cannot leave Act 2 town. Only error is "an unexpected disconnection has occurred." Checked POE game files on stand-alone client, tried switching from DX12 to Vulkan or DX11, nothing working.

Things I can do - go to town 1. Purchase items from the town vendors. Load characters in standard and join instances.

Things I cannot do - leave any town in this league.

I have reinstalled the standalone client. Updated all drivers. Rebooted laptop. I cannot play the game for the first time ever.