Preverse

The Preverse is where conciousness and virtual particles existed in a dismantled state before it came into a parallel universe in a self-aware state.

Consciousness
When an object exists, it may have consciousness in a self-aware state(a state where it is aware of at least itself), but has no sensation of time(usually). And without the sensation of time, it's not conscious.

When an object gets created, the Preverse sends a message of sorts to add the conciousness in a self aware state to the entity, being, object, etc, whether or not it has the sensation of time. For the object to experience time normally, it must have a delay in-between loops of perception of time. Your consciousness has a delay in-between 0-sized perceptions of time, which give us the sensation of time, a more frequent delay makes you experience time slower, a less frequent delay causes you to experience time faster, and 0 delay means you don't experience time normally(or experience time infinitely fast, which is practically equivalent to not experiencing time at all).

Virtual Particles
For your information, a virtual particle only gains consciousness if it successfully exited the verse that it was previously in.

When a verse doesn't have enough virtual particles inside it due to excessive quantities of virtual particles exiting outside it's barrier, and it therefore requires/needs more virtual particles, the preverse sends virtual particles to the verse that requires/needs it.