The "Dark Syndicate Saga" (暗いシンジケート冒険談) is a saga that follows the Straw Hats as they wander into a piece of the New World under the lordship of a cabal of powerful crime lords, the eponymous Dark Syndicate. During the saga, the Straw Hats unintentionally get involved in the plans of a race of machines called the Automatons, in their aspirations for world domination. It is made of four story arcs.